


Starfall

by ShadowFoxDemon27, UltimateGamer101



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Educational purposes, Forgot to add tags, Fucking, Give him all the cuddles, He needs them, Hello Angst My Dear Friend, I see youve come to talk to me again :D, Poor Seriff, WHy is giving my child pain so much fun, btw this is Shadow, cjasbdjcfv, for..., had to change the rating, im so smart, its fun, lookit me, thats it, yah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2018-12-04 00:08:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11543310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowFoxDemon27/pseuds/ShadowFoxDemon27, https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltimateGamer101/pseuds/UltimateGamer101
Summary: Darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always equate to good.Why is this so difficult to understand?





	1. Panic! In Seriff's Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Panic attacks are never fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shadow: Warning! If panic attacks triggers you, please don't read this chapter! Its not really too important for the story.  
> Song that inspired Chapter 1 and 2 is Believe by Hollywood

Why?

Why was he so scared suddenly?

What reason was there for it? Seriff swallowed thickly, chills running down his spine while he ran through all the possible reasons that could have set him off. Nothing. There had been nothing. All he had done was spend some legit quality time with everyone. He enjoyed himself for once. What so wrong about that? What was wrong with being happy-

He froze, flexing his numb phalanges.

He had been happy. 

When did being happy ever work out for him?

His breathing hitched as he gripped his dresser tightly. Every time he was happy, fate decided to be cruel. They would take everything from him. 

They took his parents.

They took his freedom.

They took his arm.

They took his brother.

_~~They took his Papy....~~_

"uh, seriff? you doin' okay in there? sounds like something is..."

The voice from outside the Aussie's room seemed to fade in and out, as though coming from a distance, and the last part was unheard. Suddenly, there was a face in front of his, browbones pulled down in concern and eyelights dimmed in worry.

"...hey, you with me?"

Seriff flinched violently away from the face, his mind racing. When did he get in? Didn't he lock the door? Another wave of dizziness hit him, making him fall backwards (and hurting his tail) in his attempt to bring distance between him and the other... Sans? Was it another Sans? Stars he couldn't even remember anything correctly much less see.

It was indeed another Sans- UnderFell Sans, to be precise. The skeleton with the red eyelights and sharp teeth withdrew slightly at Seriff's attempt to put distance between the two, his bony hands held out in a placating gesture.

"ey, it's okay, just breathe... focus, yer fine."

He moved his hands in a slow pattern as he took exaggerated breaths, demonstrating the way Seriff should breathe. To anyone watching, this would seem like an uncharacteristic action from the angry skeleton... but he knew Seriff. The taller Sans was one of his few close friends, beyond the weird relationships between the various alternate versions of himself and his bro. He cared about the Aussie, and he knew how to help... kinda. Everyone was different.

Seriff shook slightly, but managed to force himself to breathe.

_Just... do what he does...._

He breathed in.

_Just do what he does..._

He breathed out.

Another shiver ran down his spine along with another wave terror. A whine left his throat, but he forced himself to calm down. He was fine. _Lie._ Everything would be fine. _Lie._ He wasn't alone. _You're always alone. Why must you continue this lying? Oh that's right, because you're not like them..._

Slowly moving closer, Red crouched beside Seriff, keeping his hands in the latter's line of sight. His smile was downturned in a concerned frown, and as carefully as he could, the shorter skeleton wrapped his arms around the taller in an awkward hug.

"relax, yer here. yer safe, and we're safe. nothing is gonna happen to us."

The edgy skeleton's eyelights glowed slightly brighter, soothing energy flowing quietly around the two. Eye-glowing was a thing that most skeletons could do to help regulate their emotions and the emotions of others, but those who didn't know of the Handplates universe generally weren't aware of this fact.

"nobody is goin' anywhere... we're all safe."

Seriff curled up into the others arms, mumbling incoherently under his breath. His magic reached out to Red's, taking in as much comfort as it could from him. The Aussie was silent for a long time afterward, his breathing now regulated and his mind calmed. He would twitch once in a while, and he would mutter or whine under his breath, but then he would go quiet once more.

Drawing back slightly to check over the Aussie skeleton, Red kept a comforting flow of magic up, and spoke after several moments of silence. "alright... ya feelin' any better?"

The younger twitched at the sudden noise, as if waking up from dozing off and muttered back an affirmative. He hurt his tail during his panic, but he would be fine soon at least. He would still have to deal with all the bullshit that came afterward, but he was used to that by now. He could suffer in silence on that at least.

In order to understand what had triggered this state, Red had to ask some questions. The rough skeleton wasn't great at being gentle with his words, but he tried his best to soften the impact, keeping his eyelights glowing brighter in that soothing way they were. 

"so what got ya like this? i dun think i've ever seen ya have a panic attack before. did we do anything to set ya off?"

Seriff winced at the others words. Ah. He almost forgot about that bullshit he had to deal with. The questions. The concern. ~~_The things he didn't deserve._~~

"n-no. none of ya did anythin'. jus' happens sometimes. ya ever seen em cause i usually get over em pretty quick." Well sometimes. Most only lasted about 10 minutes as he managed to calm himself down before they got too bad. The rare ones lasted about... 30, 40 minutes?

Shifting his position, Red sat beside his alternate, leaning in and keeping an arm around the other's shoulder both as a form of comfort and restraint. Stars knew he'd try to avoid a conversation like this by teleporting away, and teleporting was more difficult when you were in contact with something you didn't with to teleport with... He didn't want Seriff to avoid this.

"look... i have 'em sometimes myself. yer droppin' now, right? tiredness settling in, maybe a few negative thoughts here and there. try to think of some things that keep you goin', and if ya can, tell me about 'em."

Seriff fidgeted, swallowing thickly at the others words.

What kept him going?

_What indeed? Everyone knows a monster's soul is white because it's composed of the color spectrum. Such bright colors. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green.... His soul was made of them too..._

_**J u s t n o t t h e s a m e s h a d e s =)** _

Seriff forced himself to breathe. It wouldn't do to have another episode. Not here. Not now. Not in front of someone else. 

"music." He finally breathed out, "i uh. used t'play piano when i was an ankle biter. sometimes wh-when i'm over at blooks house, we uh... we talk bout different ways to remix songs."

"a'right. think i can help ya with that." Stuffing his free hand into his jacket pocket and shuffling around a bit, the older skeleton pulled out his phone and some earbuds. The latter item was untangled, one end handed to Seriff and the other plugged into the phone, and Red quietly scrolled through his music for some songs that might help.

"'ere, i'll be right back. listen to this shit, and don't go anywhere. i'm gettin' us some grillby's."

Seriff nodded, taking the earbuds and placing them where his ears would be if he had any. He leaned back against his bed frame, fiddling with the playlist by scrolling up and down, but not changing the song. It always irked him when someone cut off a song before it was done.

It wasn't long before Red returned, two bags of hot and greasy food ready to be devoured in one hand, and a brightly glowing drink of purple and blue swirls in the other hand. Only a song or two had passed- the joys of teleportation- and as the shorter skeleton held out a bag and the drink to Seriff, he spoke over the next song.

"gotcha fries and a burg. and one a' those magic drinks from the fridge, mixed perseverance and patience. figured the combination might help."

_The drink won't do you any good. They don't effect you anymore. Don't ever forget why-_

Seriff took the food and drink with a small nod towards Red, "thanks." He was too tired to talk with correct capitalization. He sighed and took a bite of his burger, his fangs flashing when he did.

The fact that Seriff had fangs was an interesting one, if not one that didn't bother Red at all. His own teeth were widely regarded as the sharpest of the various skeletons, and even they usually had fangs, so the Aussie having some quite long ones was a thing the Fell Sans merely filed away into the back of his skull as he dug into his own food.

It was all too soon that Red had to leave- work back in his own universe being necessary- and the short skeleton crumpled up the empty bag. "a'right, if ya need anything, shoot me a text or ask one of the others or something. get some rest, 'kay?"

Seriff nodded numbly, finishing off his drink with a final swig. "i'd... actually rather prefer if you didn't tell the others." He muttered, getting up. His movement was sluggish and shaky, but stable. "thanks for the food."

Watching the taller skeleton, letting him move on his own, Red responded by stuffing his hands in his hoodie pockets and sending a wink Seriff's way. "no prob. and uh, sure. as long as ya come to me when ya need to, 'kay?"

Seriff nodded, giving a small smile towards his shorter fell counterpart. "yah. i'll be sure to text ya."

"cya." With that, the Fell Sans was gone, teleported away downstairs.

Seriff waited until he was alone again to fall on his bed and frown.

Being happy never works out for him...


	2. Darkness Is Evil?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well any points Red made helpin' Seriff just went out the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shadow: Ayy! :D Ultimate is being lazy and says Hi.

The next day had arrived, and it was just the same as the last. Skeletons came and went, jokes were shared, and conversations were rehashed. In fact, there was one conversation topic in particular that kept cropping up... and was currently being discussed as the group watched a Disney movie.

"look, darkness is about as evil as it can get. exhibit a, fuckin' hades. the guy is sending all sorts of evil beasts and demons and shit after hercules, and ya can't say he isn't suspicious with that chatting with meg."

Red gestured towards the screen as he spoke, accidentally hitting the bowl of popcorn and spilling some into the folds Death's cloak. This reminded him of the god's similarities to Hades, and he quickly clarified his argument. "no offense to you, death. yer fine."

Seriff didnt reply to Red, instead just listening to the conversation between the other in silent resignation and resentment. He should have seen this coming in all honesty.

_If only he knew about your little secret... I can only imagine the look on his face~_

"You do know this story is inaccurate right? During the labors of Heracles, the final labor assigned to him was to capture Cerberus- which by the way is derived from the latin word 'Spot' like, Hades literally named his fuckin dog spot- and instead of just stealing the dog, Heracles just asked Hades if he could borrow him and Hades told him he could so long as no harm became of his dog. Hades in Greek mythology was actually a pretty reasonable guy. Even his punishments were pretty fair compared to what Zeus dished out." Seriff pointed out with a raised brow.

"THAT IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, SERIFF! ACCORDING TO ONE OF THE BOOKS I HAVE READ, ZEUS DECLARED SOMEBODY'S LIVER TO BE PECKED OUT EVERY DAY FOR ETERNITY, AND HE'S ALSO HAD SOMEONE ROLL A LARGE BOULDER UP A HILL FOR ETERNITY! AND HE'S ALSO SENTENCED SOMEONE TO HAVE ACID DROPPED ON THEIR FACE FOR ETERNITY!"

Blueberry spoke up from his place in a blanket fort nearby, gaining several odd glances at the way he so casually divulged such gruesome information. Raspberry, beside him in the fort, smirked in a way that told the others that _he_ was responsible for the Swap Sans knowing this.

With a minor glare towards the FellSwap Sans, Honey spoke up in a lazy drawl from his seat on the couch. "that's a lot of eternities, bro. zeus sounds harsh."

"Oh yah, don't forget the fact he was a cheating hoe." Seriff snorted, pointing at the picture of Disney's Zeus and Hera lovingly holding each other while Hercules was welcomed home. 

"Zeus was always cheating on Hera with another woman. Most of them were mortal, but others were wood nymphs and other beautiful creatures. That graceful couple you see in the movie? Bullshit. Hera was always pushed to the side and ignored. The only one who actually had a stable relationship with their lover was, surprise surprise, Hades. He treated Persephone with fuckin respect. Yah he kidnapped her, but he was faithful to her and he loved her. He never cheated on her with another, and he let her visit her mother every year."

"HE KIDNAPPED HER? DOESN'T THAT MEAN HE MARRIED HER WITHOUT HER CONSENT?" At these words, some of the skeletons thought of their more Yandere counterparts and winced with pity. Those weren't fun universes to visit, especially when they were often confused with the target of the Yandere's obsession.

Yandere Blueberry was particularly terrifying. By unspoken agreement, nobody allowed the Papyruses anywhere _near_ those universes.

"Okay, those are two different things that never mean the same, but in this case, No. Persephone at first did not want to be married. But she did eventually return his love. Now before going to say that's proof Hades is a bad guy, keep in mind that the main reason why Hades managed it was because Zeus both consented and helped him. He would never have done so otherwise."

"THE PORTRAYAL MAY BE INCORRECT, BUT THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS THAT THIS HADES IS DARK AND EVIL. HONESTLY, _EVERYTHING_ DARK IS FUCKING EVIL IN DISNEY MOVIES. MAYBE REALITY TOO. NOW ALL OF YOU SHUT UP, I WISH TO LAUGH AT THIS IDIOT'S ROMANTIC LIFE."

What Edge said had most of the skeletons settling down, but off to the side, Red muttered a quiet continuation of this conversation to the seemingly-asleep Sans beside him. "well, black holes ain't evil."

"black holes are a natural phenomenon. they're incapable of thought, lacking sentience, so they can't be evil or good. they're just there. now, the void on the other hand..." Both skeletons paused to shiver, thinking of the dark dimension that their fathers had been scattered across.

Seriff said nothing else after that, trying to focus on the movie and ignore everyone else. Unfortunately, after that whole spew the movie just lacked its charm. He couldn't look at it without thinking about Red's words...

_So much for going to him for help huh?_

He sighed, getting up from his place on his chair.

One of the skeletons seated nearby him, an oddity in that she was a female skeleton, blinked up curiously and signed a question so as to not disturb the other movie viewers. **"Are you alright? That sigh seemed to be somewhat... heavy."**

Seriff shook his head, and signed back, **"I'm fine. Just tired, but thanks for askin'."** He moved silently, as not to bother the ones watching the movie. **"I'm going to go for a walk. Tell the others if they ask."**

After getting a nod back from the woman, he moved passed her and seemingly melting into the shadows. He could make a pretty good spy if he put more backbone into looking into it, he thought with amusement as he exited the Mansion. 

Walking down the path that lead towards the city, he couldn't help but look around. The forest that surrounded the house. Nature always amazed him, and he hated what humanity was doing to it just to make their lives easier. How selfish...

 _Like you're one to talk. Not telling the others what you are. What your SOUL is. Just because you didn't want them to treat you what you are; a **freak.** How long do you think you can keep it from them? How long do you think before it crumbles-_

Ugh. If he wasn't hearing enough darkness equals evil bullshit from the others, his fucking mind was going at him. 

Nothing is sacred apparently.

He shook his head, turning off the usual path down a less trodden path. He was sure he was the only one to notice it as when he first found it, nature nearly took back her grounds. Seriff was glad he found it when he did, because it led to the most beautiful field he's ever seen.

Imagine his surprise, however, when he found he wasn't the only one enjoying the scenery. 

"Error? Didn't think t'see you so close to the manor."

The glitched skeleton glanced over at Seriff with a bored expression, his red-rimmed glasses on and his knitting needles clicking away in creation of something. After several moments of silence, it seemed that he wasn't going to answer... but eventually, he did.

"t͞h̛i̴̛͡s͜ ̵i̶̡̕s̛͟ ͜th͡͠ȩ ̢o̢̕n͜͏l҉y ̨̨҉c͝l͝ȩa̷ri̷̷n̸̸g ͏̛̛l͟i̛ķ̸e̡͢ t̸̶̢h͜͞i͢͝s̡ i̸̴n̵ t͞he̛ ͘͞mu̸lt̵i̵͘vę҉̧ŗ͞se̶̸.̷͞ ̡͘͟n̷͏͘o͠t͜͡ ̷̡my̕͝ f̴̢a͟҉̴u̕͢l͡t҉̕҉ ͡͞it͢'̡͘͞s͏͟ ̨ş͝o͏͜ ͞c̵͡l̶͡os͝e ̵͢͢to͠͏ ̡͠t҉hǫ̸̷s͏͘e͜͡ ̛͘i͠d͏̛i̷o̸̡t͟s͟ ͟͝͏i̶̡͘n̴͡s͏id̛e.̶"

Seriff raised his hand in surrender, before plopping next to the other at a reasonable distance. He knew the other had a problem with people touching him. "What ya workin' on?"

Error paused for a few moments, glancing down at the string and what it was forming, before responding quietly. "̷͢͠a̛ ͠͠͝sc̶a̴r̴͘f̕͏.̵"

It seemed he wouldn't be much for conversation, with the straightforward way he was answering the Aussie's questions. Perhaps something was bothering him? Or maybe he was just cranky? Nobody really knew when it came to encounters with Error, but whatever the case, they often ended in a fight.

Seriff nodded, swallowing thickly. He could feel his sash burn from under his tunic. A reminder of the people he's lost... "I always thought knitting looked kinda fun. But I lack the uh.. qualifications to do it." His eye lights flickered towards his missing arm before returning back to the glitch. "Well, you know what they say. Just keep calm and carry _yarn_."

The glitchlord snorted, rolling his mismatched eyelights before his smile lifted slightly. It seemed as though his mood had lifted somewhat. "i̷͝t̸͞ ̨̛͘m̴̢u͘s͢t̷͏͞ b̛̕ę ͢h̵a̸̢͘r̢d̢ ̸̛to͜ _n͏ȩ͠ed̸̢̡le_ ͡o͏͢n͞ s͘o̸͢m͜e̸o̵n͏͠e̸ ̵̢͠w̧įt͟h͠͏ ̡͢t̴̸h̵͟a͠͡t̸͟ ̶͝ph̶̶i̸͢l͘o͞sop͏hy̴̴.̴͘͞"

"It is," Seriff agreed, his own eye lights glowing a little in amusement. "Nobody listens t'me though. They believe everything I say is just a _string_ of lies. _Ewe_ would have no idea how hilarious it is when they find out I was tellin' the truth."

"̛isn̸͞'̛t̢͏ ̢̕t̛h̸a̡͏̸ţ ̧͢ _a҉͏̕w̶͟l_ ̡͢t̛h҉e̴y̶'̶re̢̛ ̕͟goo̵d ̶f̢͟o̢r̨̛͞?͞͠͡"

Seriff snrked, covering his mouth when a soft 'Myeh' left his mouth. It's not so much he hated his laugh, he just hated it when he laughed and anyone got a good look at his fangs. He hated the damn things so much. He hated the looks he would get because of them...

At a surge of energy nearby, Error began to put away his knitting supplies, removing his glasses last. Ink had returned to the Multiverse Mansion, and the peaceful times in the clearing would soon end once the glitched skeleton had been tracked down. Seriff seemed to have felt it as well, because the taller Sans let out a groan, "Ah piss, and we were just gettin' started too. _Wool_ -d it kill 'em to just fuck off for once?"

It was a dance the two had been doing for some time. Ink, the Protector, originally fought against these odd creatures of abstract properties. He claimed that they were 'art blocks' plaguing the Creators, and that they were quite the threat to the Multiverse, but his attention soon shifted towards Error.

Error, the Destroyer. He was more of a threat to the Multiverse than these art blocks were; at least, that was what Ink believed. As such, the Protector had shifted his primary focus to the Destroyer, and now most of his time was spent fighting off Error and trying to repair damaged universes.

A door could be heard slamming open in the near distance, the front door to be precise. Apparently Ink and others were already on their way. "w̢͢h̕͜y̵̶ w͡o̵u͡l͢d͠ ͠th̷̶̵e̶y͡?̕ it̶'͏̢͝s̶͜ ̴̶n̴͟o͜t͘ l͏͜ik̸͞e ̶̛t̸͜he҉y̵̕̕ ̴̕͡h̵̵̛av̧͞e̛҉̡ ̶a̸͡n͢͡҉y͏̸͞t̷̵hi̡͡ng͜͞҉ be͘t͡te͢r͟͡ ̸t͞͝o̢ ͟do̶̕.̵͡͞"

"They could actually work on why the Multiverse is collapsing instead of fucking watching Hercules. Buut nooo. Lets all talk about how Hades is oh so evil."

Oh yes, they couldn't fucking focus on the bigger problem- i.e. the entire fucking Multiverse collapsing. That was why they were all living together in the Multiverse Mansion, after all, yet they couldn't even find the source of the problem. All these brilliant minds together trying to figure out what was wrong with the dimensions, and they couldn't even do that, so they lounged around and had fun.

Fuck them. Fuck them all. Error was gonna have fun too, and they couldn't do jack shit to stop him. (Truthfully, Error hadn't even bothered to try finding the problem, figuring that the goodie-two-shoes skeletons would do that for him. That, and the fact that the gradual collapse of the Multiverse actually helped him eradicate the glitches within it. He'd help later. Maybe. If they weren't annoying _assholes_ about it.)

Seriff clenched his teeth a little harder than usual, before relaxing again. There was no point in getting angry. He sighed, getting up along with Error. "Guess I gotta be like Houdini, and disappear."

Error gave the Aussie a simple nod, and watched as the other took a shortcut away. He was alone again, and as Ink appeared from the trees, he laughed and took a portal to the Anti-Void. The rainbow glitch and his allies would just have to chase Error again if they wanted any answers.

Seriff... Seriff was usually one to stay away during the battle. To stay at the mansion. He didn't like fighting. He didn't like to watch others fight. He was pretty inflexible when it came to try and convincing him to join... but....

He had the feeling he should follow them. 

His hand clutched an object inside his hoodie pocket, quietly watching the others from a tree not too far away. Ignoring the chilling words that rattled through his skull. 

**_....Breathe. It'll be all over soon._ **


	3. The Stars are Crying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ulti: *smirks* This is great  
> Shadow: *clapping in a Thomas Sanders fashion* :D

"You can't win, Error! This Multiverse won't be damaged any further!" 

Ink and the other skeletons had finally caught up to the one they chased; Error being surrounded by these foes of his in Outertale. The stars in the distance glowed a history of monsters trapped away from Earth, cold and lonely and distant, and a foreboding feeling settled upon the group. 

Orion and Pluto, the native Sans and Papyrus respectively to this universe, felt the foreboding deeper than the others. Something was going to occur this day, something that caused the heavens to stir and breathe in an unseen countdown; it told the group skeletons to turn back if they wanted things to stay the way they were supposed to be.

...they did not listen, moving forward in unison to finally end Error's streak of destruction, once and for all.

Error shook his head, rolling his eyes at the others stupidity, at their selective blindness. But whatever. If they decided they would only focus on the 'good things' then let them. But he wouldnt go down without a fight. 

His grin stretched out a little further, summoning his strings, "C̴͘͠ome̛͢ ҉a͏͠ţ ͏me,̸ ҉̵s̷h̛o͞͝r̨͠t̢y."

The verbal challenge was accepted, and the battle began.

Bones flew. Blasters fired. Chunks of land broke loose from the ground they fought on, floating away into the endless expanse of the space around them. As the fight dragged on, there was no clear advantage on either side, bodily damage being dealt and meticulously repaired...

That is, until one well-timed blast relieved Error of his left leg, sending him to his sole patella with a scream of rage and pain. He was trapped, his mobility shot, dust flaking loose from the jagged chunk of femur that remained. As bones flew up from the ground to prevent the glitchlord's escape, the fighting slowed to a stop, and Ink began to approach.

"It didn't have to be this way, Error," he spoke in a sorrowful tone, his brush being equipped with an unusually dark paint. "You had the chance to change your ways. You had the chance to be... better. We could've helped you, if you'd accepted it."

As the stars nearest by began to dim, a disturbance in the fabric of time and space could be felt nearby. The foreboding feeling from earlier grew, only grew, until it was screaming at the deaf souls unable to hear it.

"But you didn't listen to us. You continued to destroy the universes, continued refusing our help. Error..." The rainbow and canvas clad skeleton paused, his brush ready to be used. "I'm sorry."

Things would never be the same.

.....not if he anything to say about it. 

For unlike them, he could hear the screams loud and clear. 

**S T O P**

**D O N T**

A blur of purple, and the glint of steel was all that was seen before Ink's paintbrush flew out of his hand. It wasn't long before Ink him was sent after it with a well placed kick to his chest. 

Seriff's face was as blank as the void. The opposite of his counterparts. 

"s-seriff? what are you doing here? you should be at the manor-"

He ignored the concerned words of his ~~friends~~ and turned towards Error. He sheathed his weapon, before holding out a hand to the glitch. 

"seriff stop fuckin' around and get away from him-" Red took a step, only to take three hurried steps back as a large rib bone nearly impaled him burst through the ground. More followed, clawing through the ground with tendon like magic connecting all of them together to form a barrier around the two.

Appearing upon the sidelines of the battle, the female skeleton from earlier peered about curiously, and saw the situation.

Ah. Error had almost been killed. Honestly, such an action was useless in the terms of the big picture, but there were consequences for such a thing... dire consequences. Perhaps, she needed to step in.

Sauntering forth, Arista teleported to stand between the gruesome ribcage shield and the group of skeletons from the mansion, her hands clasped neatly behind her back as she suddenly stood in their way. "My dear friends, it seems that you have almost made a mistake. You are fortunate that Seriff was here in enough time to prevent such a thing."

Red, still the closest despite those backwards steps he'd taken, scowled down at the shorter skeleton. "what fuckin' mistake is that? he's the cause of the multiverse collapsing!"

"...so you believe. Rather, so you have convinced yourself." 

As Error accepted Seriff's hand within the shield, the female skeleton continued speaking. "You have forgotten yourselves. Error is a creation as much as you are. Ink, Protector, are you truly deserving of that title if you attempt to perform Error's job for him?"

"Of course I am! I'm protecting the other universes from him by doing this!" Ink paused, and narrowed his sockets. "Wait, are you just getting me back for the whipped cream prank right now? This isn't the time for that, you know."

The damaged leg of the Destroyer slowly knit itself together again, healing magic and strings bringing forth bone from dust. He wasn't in the best shape, but it would have to do- at least, until he got someplace safe. For now, he was capable of standing on his own two feet, and had the option to flee once more.

Seriff watched unflinchingly as Errors bones snapped together, making sure the other could stand before letting go. The Aussie then backed away from him to a more respectful distance, and gave a curt nod. The unspoken message was simple if you understood. 

'Leave. I will cover you.'

With a nod in response, Error stumbled off, a portal opening and closing with his exit. One of the attacking skeletons- Orion- shuddered as the stars fell silent, the foreboding feeling dissipating completely. The event had concluded... or had it only just arrived?

Either way, there was one important question that had to be asked, a question given audible form by Blueberry. "SERIFF, WHY DID YOU HELP HIM?"

Seriff didnt reply, his back turned to them as he stared where Error had left. The shield slowly pulled back down now that the main reason it was up was gone.

_**Breathe in.** _

He turned towards them while grabbing the hilt of his sword. He refused to look any of them in the eye, his own eye lights dimmer than usual. 

_**Breathe out.** _

Behind Seriff, far beyond where the portal had been, a single star winked out. Beside that star, another one darkened, and then another, and another. Orion, his attention having been focused upon where the portal had been, was the first to notice.

"uh... guys?" The low shock in his voice had the others glancing to him, and after following his gaze, to the darkness consuming the stars. It took them several moments to realize that _no, the stars weren't dying,_ they were being blocked out...

As the stars were blocked from view and the darkness rushed by around them, the group of skeletons before Seriff reached for their magic to flee, but it was too late. Their shortcuts were nullified, and before they could begin to panic about that, the Aussie skeleton moved.

His greatsword, a large and heavy blade that by all means should be wielded with two hands, was swung easily from its sheath upon his back. Seemingly without any effort, the sword was then plunged into the ground beneath him, and the other skeletons could only watch in horror at what this caused.

Thick, viscous black liquid began to bubble up from the cracks around the grounded blade. When the great-sword was withdrawn and held in a resting position on his shoulder, the bubbling and hissing liquid shot upwards now without restraint, as though it were a geyser of black lava. Someone screamed when the black liquid spread far enough to touch them, and the weight of despair began to settle down upon the gathered skeletons...

The geyser abruptly halted in its flow, and as the liquid still in the air dropped to the tainted ground below, six skeletons were revealed, with one infamous face at the front.

_Dusty... Murder... Cross... Horror... Dark..._

_**Nightmare...** _

The skeleton whose body matched the goopy darkness around the group, Nightmare, moved to stand beside Seriff with a confident gait. His vice-tainted cyan eyelights glowed as he scanned the opposing group, casting a dim sheen of light over his own goopy body and the bones of those closest to him. Finally, with his smile beginning to widen at the selection of victims available to him, he spoke.

"So... you lot really fucked up, didn't you?"

Ink thanked Outertale Papyrus as he helped the Protector up, and glanced over with the others at the Aussie in concern. Seriff had yet to react to anything, and his bones seemed a lot paler now that he was in almost complete darkness. The only thing keeping any sort of light in the area was the full moon in the distance behind him, and the steel that reflected it. His eye lights flicked dimly as they stared at the ground in front of him. 

This couldn't be Seriff. He was a sarcastic ball of angst sure, but he would never do something like this....

Nightmare's grin turned gleeful as the thoughts of the skeletons seemed to turn mostly towards concern for their poor sweet friend. The kiddie of the group. The one they all cared for. Surely, Nightmare _must_ have done something to him. 

If only they knew how wrong they were.

After several moments of silence, the new arrivals of Nightmare's gang being processed, Raspberry spoke up with anger masking his uneasiness. "YOU WERE ASKED A FUCKING QUESTION! WHY DID YOU HELP HIM GET AWAY?"

Silence... and Nightmare spoke up for him. "Maybe he was coerced. Maybe he wasn't. Either way, I can feel your fear. I can feel the anguish and terror welling up within your souls as you gaze upon the betrayal of a loved one..."

Slowly, his grin widens, and his eyelights brighten with glee.

"...and as you question why he stands by my side without hesitation."

"Well, guess it matters not. If you want him so desperately, how about you fight for him?" Nightmare chuckled, before turning his cyan gaze upon the Sans next to him.

Seriff gripped the handle of his blade tightly for a moment. His dim eye lights going dimmer, and almost flickering out completely before he closed his eyes. 

He looked almost like he was fighting something inside himself with the way his shoulders tensed. However whatever fight he had seemed to end rather quickly as his expression smoothed back into the blank state it was before. 

"How does your version of the saying go again Seriff? Ah yes..." Nightmare smiled, as if remembering a good joke, _"Its a beautiful evening isn't it?"_ The taller twitched, his eyes still closed. _"Stars are shining...."_ Another twitch. _"The Moon is bright..."_

_"On nights like these.... Bastards like you..."_

Nightmare smirked when the other opened his eye socket to reveal they were empty of any light. 

**_"Are burning in hell."_ **

It was like Nightmare had just flipped a switch. Seriff's eyes widened completely before his judgement eye began to shimmer into existence. But it was... wrong. It was slitted and would once in a while convulse, giving it an almost demonic appearance. 

He brought his sword down from its resting position on his shoulder and gave it a twirl before going into a battle position.

Nightmare gave an innocent look, "Oh did I say fight for him? I meant fight him. My mistake."


	4. A Sigh Escapes From Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...and worlds end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ulti: *maniacal laughter is heard in the distance*
> 
> Shadow: What is in this boys drinks? WHo the fuck is his supplier I need his number. (Btw listen to this while reading this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UlRIbpYTwk )

Slowly, the skeletons began to realize exactly what situation they were in. Those closest to Seriff moved away to stand with the others, expressions stiff with displeasure, with the exception of Arista, who simply sauntered off to the sidelines of neutrality. Sans, in particular, seemed to be the most affected. 

"kid, c'mon. you don't gotta fight us... we're your friends, we're practically family."

Seriff made no indication that he heard Sans as he twirled his sword. The steel of his blade glinting different colors with each time the moonlight hit. 

Blue, Orange, Orange, Blue, Orange.

A swing of his sword was followed by more, each swing letting out a blast of magical energy towards the Classic counterpart. 

Blue Vertical, Orange Horizontal, Orange Vertical, Blue Horizontal, Orange Diagonal.

Sans dodged- rather clumsily, due to both the previous battle wearing on him and not knowing what to expect from Seriff- his eyelights guttering out as he did so. "shit- seriff, you don't have to fight us!"

Syrup nearby, narrowing his sockets, took in the stance of their foe. That was the way one stood when they... had nothing left to lose. Why did he think he had nothing left to lose? Did they mean so little to him?

The lazy Papyrus moved to attack, sharpened bones in his hands within a split second as he rushed forward.

...He didnt even get close.

Seriff twirled his greatsword once, before sheathing it temporarily to burst into lightning speed towards Syrup. He gracefully side step the Papyrus and turned, to where he faced the others back. After doing so he gave the Fellswap counterpart a lovely surprise present; a round house kick to the spine. 

Woo....

...

Raspberry moved quickly to catch his brother, a frustrated growl escaping his teeth. "WHAT FOOLISHNESS IS THIS? ARE YOU A MERE BITCH TO FULFILL NIGHTMARE'S DESIRES?"

Together, ignoring the protests of Sans, the FellSwap brothers moved to attack as one. They knew each other's patterns like the backs of their own hands, having fought together for years, and facing the two of them would take more than a mere tap to the spine to put them out of commission.

...at their best, that is.

Seriff made no move to dodge this time, only tilting his head casually in their direction before the purple in his eye turned green. It wasn't long afterwards did the two find themselves unable to move. 

_**Breathe In.**_

Their souls had turned Green. 

_**Breathe Out.** _

The Aussie drew his sword once more, swaying lightly like he was hearing a tune the others could not. His sword once again glinted in the light.

Orange, Blue, Orange, Orange, Blue, Blue. 

Orange Horizontal, Blue Horizontal, Orange Diagonal, Orange Diagonal, Blue Vertical, Blue Horizontal.

That...

_Oh stars, Seriff fought dirtier than any other Sans they'd seen thus far._

The two were forced to withstand the orange attacks, being unable to move from where their green souls kept them. It was out of sheer luck, or sheer mercy, that Raspberry wasn't utterly depleted of his naturally low HP.

Watching this with expressions of mixed pain, rage, and sorrow, the other skeletons were quick to come to a conclusion. If they fought Seriff, they'd have to fight him altogether. Going after him little by little was just guaranteeing defeat... but they didn't want to fight him.

They didn't want to bring down their younger alternate, but if he was truly under Nightmare's control, it was what they would have to do.

............

They stepped forward, and moved to attack him as they had moved to attack Error not that long before.

Of course, they had just forgotten one iiitty not so biiitty fact: He wasn't alone. 

"Well, that just doesn't seem right. Ganging up on my new lil buddy?" Nightmare chuckled, making a small gesture towards the other five. "I think not."

It was then Nightmare and the five truly joined the fight. 

Three flanked to the right side of Seriff, while the other three flanked the left, taking on as many skeletons as they could to give the other allies a more reasonable advantage. Nightmare most notably targeted Ink.

As the battle raged on, there was an area of calm surrounding Seriff. Nightmare and his allies were doing a good job of keeping their opponents off of the Aussie, but eventually one broke through... It was Blueberry.

"SERIFF, WHY ARE YOU SIDING WITH NIGHTMARE? HE ONLY WANTS THE PAIN AND SORROW OF OTHERS, AND EVEN THOUGH HE COULD BE A BETTER PERSON, HE CONTINUALLY REFUSES TO TRY! AND HIS ALLIES, THEY ONLY WISH FOR HARM AND DEATH! WHY WOULD YOU BETRAY US FOR A LIFE OF HURTING OTHERS?"

If words could be knives, then Blueberry wielded them better than any Frisk or Chara could. Such was an attribute of most Papyrus type skeletons, to varying degrees with each. It was a shame that Seriff had felt these knives before.

Seriff made no response, instead staggering into battle position like a puppet with a broken string. Only this time he was leaning against his sword, as if he wasn't going to use it...

_**Breathe In.**_

_**Breathe Out.**_

His eye turned completely purple, signifying his next attack and, if Blueberry were to look down, show that his soul was purple as well. Only this time, he summoned Gaster Blasters-

Wait. 

No.

'Gaster Blaster' was the wrong term for whatever the hell these things were. 

Bones erupted from the ground, writhing grotesquely as they formed themselves into two huge dragon like bodies, with Gaster Blasters that looked quite similar to said mythical being attached. 

**Then** he summoned Gaster Blasters. 

....

Okay, he fought a lot dirtier than they saw at first.

Wow.

As the blaster beasts set upon him, Blueberry had his hands full, and was slowly forced to retreat. He slashed and dodged, trying to make his way back to his chosen target, but several beams of boiling bright light herded him away.

This cleared the path for Red, who bulldozed in directly through one of the ordinary blasters, damaging it to the point where its lower jaw was completely separated from the rest of its skull. With an angrier snarl than anyone had seen from him in years, the skeleton with the fluffed up hood set upon Seriff with the force of all the wrath within his soul, screaming at the other. 

"come on kid, ya turnin' yer back on us now!? do we mean nothin' to ya at all, that yer able to do this so fuckin' easy!? what happened!?"

Seriff jerked back violently after Red tore threw one of his Blasters, throwing a hand up towards his mouth as a deep gash appeared, leading from under his chin to the corners of his mouth. Apparently, injuring his Gaster Blasters would give him similar wounds if it was bad enough. 

He shook for a moment, emotion flashing through his eyes for a split second before it was gone just as fast. Another second passed before he slipped back into his puppet like posture. His hand dropped to his side before taking a few steps back towards his sword. 

Yanking it free from its earthy prison, he twirled it twice before sending it flying towards Red at high speeds. By some miracle, (or mercy with hella deadly accuracy) it only managed to slip between two of his rib bones and pin him down along with a few summoned bones.

Red was frozen, couldn't move, lest he risk taking enough damage to dust. Dark Sans, seeing an opening, sent a bone attack flying directly towards the downed skeleton's sternum...

...but it was deflected aside, Edge coming forward in time to save his brother.

Turning to Seriff, his gaze was cold, calculating. If any of the self-proclaimed 'good' skeletons here could defeat the one-armed Aussie, it was this one, as he had sparred with the other many times before.

The Fell Papyrus raised a gloved fist to point towards Seriff, a barrage of sharpened bones and two blasters of his own moving forward. He did not speak; words were useless at this moment, they would be better wielded later on.

Seriff wiped away any marrow/determination running down his face,before returning Edges cold look with a hollow one. He raised his hand above his head, blue flames erupting around it as the moon glowed brilliantly behind him. It made the magic glow brighter, almost as bright as the others....

...almost like it was like a virtue. 

But Seriff knew that wasn't the truth.

_...Breathe In...._

_...Breathe Out...._

Most Gaster Blasters were summoned, including the one Red broke apart. Blasting through Edges barrage of bones, Seriff took the moment to dash forward, giving a low swooping kick in an attempt to knock the other down.

His blasters firing towards the other's, Edge stepped neatly over Seriff's low kick, as though he were merely passing over an errant branch in a snowy path. The step was followed through with a sharp gesture, bones of red and orange color shooting upwards from the ground beneath them; all aimed for the Aussie opponent before him.

Edge gave no visible warning beyond that gesture, as such a thing was not needed. His sockets took in every detail of the other, and when the time was right, he moved to attack again, and again, and again. Death wasn't an option just yet; but nothing prevented him from attempting to incapacitate the Sielu Sans before him.

The Edgy Papyrus could try, but Seriff certainly wasn't making it easy for him. The Gaster Blasters fired a wave of energy to cancel out the Fell Papyrus' own. DT marrow dripped from Seriff's wound, leaving a red stain down his face. However if the loss of marrow effected him in anyway, he was doing a damn good job at hiding it. 

The Australian was standing in less than two seconds after the failed attempt, and didnt seem at all bothered that he did so. Then again this had been his expression almost the entire time since Error left. 

He summoned a few bones of his own, only to use them as jumping pads to go over Edge's sea of red and orange. A Gaster Beast erupted from the ground under Edge in a similar fashion as the ones before it, snapping its jaws upwards in an attempt to bite him.

The Fell Papyrus dove to the side, narrowly escaping between the closing jaws of the beast. A long scratch marred the front of his armor, a silver streak peeking through the black metal exterior, but the chestplate held firm and continued to protect the lanky skeleton as it was made to do.

Clear of the threat, Edge attacked again, summoning bones of his own to stand upon. As the two skeletons traded blows above the others, chunks of broken attacks would fall into the expanse of red and orange bones below, being broken apart further until they were nothing... This was what the two faced, should either of them fall.

Finally, as he batted aside an attack from the Aussie, Edge decided it was time for words to be used. Well, one word, a direct command to his opponent, his training partner, his friend. 

"SPEAK."

Seriff twitched, disobeying the command by not saying anything. Only summoning more bones to combat the other. 

_.....Breathe In....._

_.....Breathe... Out..._

Orange Eye, Orange Soul.

For those of you who know orange attacks, an Orange Soul works quite similar to the attack. If you move, you won't lose any health. But if you stop, it causes damage.

The Gaster Beast screeched, summoning the Blasters closest to it. Their eyes changed blue as they charged their attacks towards Edge.

_You dirty son of a bitch._

There wasn't any way to get out of this without taking damage of some sort, similar to the earlier green soul and orange attack pattern, but Edge could sure as hell find a way to minimize the damage... or negate it altogether.

A blaster of his own was called forth, its jagged sockets glowed orange, and it fired a powerful beam of orange magic. But not at Seriff, no- at himself. By doing this, his orange-state soul was, effectively, protected from the blue beams of Seriff's attacks by the orange beam of his own. A shield; a volatile, dangerous, deadly shield, but one that worked.

That quick thinking saved Edge from taking drastic damage, allowing him to escape the paths of the blue beams before his own orange beam dissipated. Still, he was clipped by the blue attacks surrounding his own... there was no avoiding that. His HP went down by 48 points in total, the karmic retribution of his opponent feeding upon his LOVE and doubling the damage he took.

"SERIFF, ANSWER THE QUESTIONS POSED TO YOU. WHAT WRONG HAVE WE DONE YOU? ARE YOU AFRAID OF US? OF SOMETHING WE COULD DO? YOU KNOW THAT I AND MY BROTHER WOULD PROTECT YOU. WHY ARE YOU TURNING YOUR BACK UPON US?"

Seriff was starting to get tired of all the questions, all the fighting. Case in point when his eye turned blue and threw Edge into a nearby cliff. 

..... 

As his brother was sent flying into a cliff, chunks of dirt and rock breaking loose deep around the impact site, Red released a cry of fear and rage. Edge would be fine, that was nothing, right? He shouldn't be as afraid as he was. He shouldn't be straining to escape the bones and sword that pinned him down, chipping away at his HP decimal point by decimal point. He shouldn't be yanking his right arm through a bone, snapping his radius, just to send a massive Gaster Blaster after Seriff.

...but the Aussie's capabilities were unknown.

Edge could be dead right now, dusting within that cliffside crater his body had made, because the skeletons of the Multiverse Mansion had never discovered the limits of Seriff's capabilities. Sure, they knew he was Second in Command of the Royal Guard back at his home dimension, but that wasn't a good reference in terms of power. They knew he could use blue magic and could teleport, but practically every Sans had those abilities. He was mostly unknown, and they should've tried harder to... to _know_ him, both as a friend and as a second family...

They didn't try hard enough, and now they were paying the price.

Seriff ignored the blaster, his Blaster Beast using its own beam to block Red's blaster. His eye turned blue, before a few rocks were thrown carelessly off to the side, revealing a still barely alive Edge. His armor broken and dented like junk metal, with its wearer looking just as beat up. 

_Breathe...._

_In...._

_Breathe....._

_Out...._

The skeletons of the multiverse manor could only watch in horror when Seriff summoned a red bone, and pointed it at the downed skeletons neck.

Oh stars... He was going to kill him. 

_Breathe....._

Seriff looked Edge straight in the sockets, the tip getting dangerously close to his cervical vertebrae. 

Memories flashed before him. Times of Fear, Times of Sadness, of Happiness, of anger.... Edge and his brother had both been there for him.

_....Breathe....._

When Edge and Red first caught him singing, he had been so embarrassed. 

_....Brea...._

When Seriff slammed into Edge's room during a lightning storm, only to find the tougher one just as freaked out...

They were huddled together when Red found them. 

_...B..._

One time when he was stuck in the Fell universe, he had made them something to eat. Edge was so surprised to know that Seriff could actually cook. They spent the whole breakfast chatting about different cuisines. Red spoke up once in a while to add comments about hot cats and burgers, much to Seriff's amusement and Edge's annoyance. 

_..._

...Edge had been the first to never question why he cried on that day...

_..._

Seriff's judgement eye flickered in and out of existence, going between staying and his normal eyelights... Each time, his eyelights held a new emotion.

_Horror._

_Sadness._

~~_Fear._ ~~

~~_So much fear._ ~~

~~**_Stars, he didn't want to do this..._ ** ~~

The bone held to Edge's neck started to gain a sort of static effect, before it disappeared... and Nightmare tsked from where he stood, shaking his head.

A darkened pit opened from behind Seriff as the dark entity spoke. "What a shame. I suppose we'll just have to work on that, now won't we?"

Shooting from the abyss came a sticky tentacle, wrapping itself around his mouth... presumably to keep him from talking. Seriff's judgement eye disappeared in a moment of panic, his normal eyelights wide as he went to grab at the tentacle, only for more to shoot out and wrap around him. 

Yanking the teen down, the tentacles dragged him forcibly into the pit quickly. The others could only watch as he vanished down the hole, before it closed in on itself. 

Nightmare formed a portal for himself and his allies, letting them in first before grinning at the others left, "Ah, I wouldn't worry about Seriff too much. He'll be fine, I swear on my soul! Oh wait..." He paused purposely, before shrugging, "Welp, either way, don't worry....." He placed a hand over his sternum, "I'll take care of him as if he was my own brother."

With that, the embodiment of negative emotions stepped through the portal he had created, and the darkness of the battleground lifted.

Stars began to shine again in the distance, offensively peaceful compared to what had just occurred. Their gentle light cast upon the utterly destroyed battleground, scorch marks from errant blasts and punctures from all those bone attacks scarring the surface of the beautiful Starfall area. Pools of glowing water floated freely around the ruined land, torn and battered Echo flowers whispering fragmented messages to the skeletons that remained...

_...what happened...?_

Slowly, the injured skeletons began to collect themselves, the most damaged leaning upon each other with expressions of pain and loss.

_SPEAK..._

It was silent, nothing to be said or heard but the fragments of conversation caught by the torn Echo flowers.

_That just doesn't seem right..._

They didn't know, they didn't understand. Had Seriff been under Nightmare's control? Was that why he betrayed them? It certainly seemed like it.

_ARE YOU AFRAID...?_

What would become of him? Would they ever see him again? If he was ever encountered, would he be a friend again, or an enemy?

Would he be okay?

_I'll take care of him..._

Finally, someone freed Red from the sword that pinned him down, the bones having begun to break apart without their master holding them firm. The Fell Sans rushed to the side of his heavily injured brother, gritting his sharp teeth against the pain of his own broken arm.

Seriff's greatsword was held carefully, as though it would break with the slightest bit of pressure, just like this fragile peace after the battle.

_...I'll take care of him as if he was my own brother..._


	5. A Thousand Years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just kidding, it hasn't been a thousand years. And no, we won't love you for a thousand more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ulti: You know you've made a good chapter when you're up at 1 or 2 in the morning giggling about it.  
> Shadow: Dont worry, Angst is on a coffee break at the moment.... key words there: at the moment.

It was pretty cold outside today.

Not like it mattered to him, skeletons werent as sensitive to the heat or lack of. 

Underfell's Snowdin was beautiful during the winter. (It was always winter there technically but you get the point) New snow fell to cover up the dust piles of former residents that decided to fuck with the wrong person.

The Underground in Underfell had been abandoned for a while now, almost... 10 years now? He didn't really know. Weird time shit made everything... weird. It may have been 10 for him, but it could be 5 weeks for someone else.

Time was a funny thing. 

Ooh, another dust pile! He wondered if that bunny bastard finally got what was coming to him. It was in the same place as him, and he wondered if his words of advice came in handy when that bunny girl decided she'd had enough of the dude throwing accusations at her.

He had started by the Ruins, making his way through the town from left to right, the scent of blue raspberry lifting into the air as trudged through the snow. Black boots making no sound as they traversed through freshly laid snow, white flakes landing on his leather jacket that he would once in a while have to brush off. 

He still hated the Snowdin of his world, but Underfell just held so many memories. 

Specifically in the house in front of him.

He wasn't sure when he stopped in front of it, but he couldn't take his eye lights off of it. The roof looked ready to cave in from all the snow laying on it. 

Edge would have a conniption fit if he saw the state of the house.

Ha.

The tall skeleton lifted his arm up to his face, hovering over the sealed cracks leading to the tips of his mouth but never touching them. 

....It'd been 10 years since that day. 

At least, for him. Again, time was a funny thing that liked to speed up for some and slow down for others. So for him, it'd been 10 years. He had no idea how long it's been for them. It could have been 3 weeks for the Manor; hell if he knew.

The ebb and flow of time was only relative, after all.

Nearby, within the woods of the empty Snowdin area, a branch snapped. The sound of light footsteps crunching through the dusty snow could be heard, and as a cloaked being emerged from the treeline, their source was revealed.

It was Arista, seemingly seeking Seriff out, as she made a direct path towards him once her diamond eyelights made contact with his. Of course, she was of no threat to him; a neutral party tried and tested by all sides of the Multiverse, found to be a reliable acquaintance if not a bit distant.

Stopping beside Seriff, the much shorter female skeleton gazed upon the house with him, a speculative look in her indigo eyelights. "Something interesting is going to happen today."

Seriff's eye lights looked through the corner of his eyes to look at the woman beside him, dropping his hand back down to his side. The purple one was in his left socket now. It was in his right a few hours ago, but it liked to do its own thing most the time. In other words, you never know which one it could be in next time you see him. 

It was just special like that. 

"Really?" A deep rumble mused from his mouth, before he took a drag from his vape, "Care to share what this interesting event entails?"

"To some, it is the return of something thought to be lost. To others, it is an opportunity." Clasping her gloved hands behind her back, the lady peered up at Seriff's sockets from the corner of her own, and her stitched grin acquired a wry tilt to it.

"To you, it is an annoyance."

Seriff exhaled the smoke from his vape, his bone brows furrowing in confusion before his sockets widened in realization, "Oh you daughter of a bastard-" He went to step back, but it was too late.

A gasp nearby betrayed the presence of someone else, and a sudden weight crashed into Seriff's back, his arm deliberately being brought down and pinned against his side in a hug. The voice pitched higher in surprise was clearly that of Blueberry's, and now, it was obvious why Arista had shown up. "SERIFF, OH MY STARS, YOU'RE OKAY!?"

"Gods DAMMIT." Seriff swore angrily, tense in the others arms. Nightmare always told him that his zoning out would get him in a spot of trouble, but he's been coming here for years without problem. Ugh.

Just Fuck

His 

Gods

Damn

Life. 

"You fucking set me up. Not cool Arista. You owe me for this shit."

Her wry smile widening slightly, Arista tilted her skull back to glance at the stalactite-studded roof of the cavern. "On the contrary. However, in anticipation of this response, I have already prepared several red velvet cakes for your arrival back at the mansion."

While the thought of red velvet cakes was quite frankly delicious, the location of said loved sweets was not so delicious. 

Blueberry only squeezed tighter, his starry eyelights spinning with joy. He knew that there was a good chance Seriff was still under Nightmare's control, so he didn't let go for a second, using his magic to call the others. "PAPY, SANS, I FOUND SERIFF! HE'S IN THE SNOWDIN AREA OF UNDERFELL!"

Seriff growled softly under his breath, moving to test the boundaries of Blueberry's strength. Fuck, he got stronger. He wasn't anywhere near this strong when Seriff knew him. He had a decent amount of strength yes, but not to this level. How long has he been gone to them? 

At least he wouldn't have to face the Fell brothers immediately, only Swap Papyrus and Classic Sans... fucking shit.

With a loud humming sound, a portal opened up nearby, the two aforementioned skeletons emerging from it in lazy fashion. Honey, as his gaze settled upon his bro and Seriff, chuckled quietly. It was almost as though nothing had changed. 

"c'mon blue, let's bring 'im home." The tone of his voice was... indecipherable.

At the mention of bringing him 'home,' he couldn't help but shoot a glare towards the two lazier skeletons, and muttered a few choice words on where they could stick their condiments in Blueberry's hearing range.

Hell to them if they thought he was actually going to go back with them. 

His hand sparked green a few times out of the sight of the three. Although he hated the thought of that color at the moment, its capabilities would certainly help him in this moment.

"NOW SERIFF, I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MIGHT NOT BE IN YOUR CORRECT MIND, BUT THAT IS NO REASON FOR SUCH FOUL LANGUAGE! ALTHOUGH I DO RECALL YOU SWEARING QUITE OFTEN BEFORE."

Almost effortlessly, the Swap Sans lifted the taller skeleton off of his feet, one arm wrapping beneath his knees and grasping his wrist, and the other arm going over his elbow and ribcage. It was a ridiculous hold, and it made Seriff look like he was a giant baby in one of those front-facing baby carriers, but it worked well enough for restraining him.

Off to the side, Arista schooled her expression into a neutral smile, successfully resisting the urge to laugh.

" _chill_ out seriff, it'll be _ice_ to have ya around again," Sans joked, shooting finger guns the other's way. He was fully prepared for an escape attempt from the Aussie, judging by his ready stance and his intense gaze, but hopefully they'd be able to get him to the manor without trouble. Blueberry should be strong enough to contain him.

Welp, there went that plan.

Oh, and also-

_Fucking stab him._

_Actually better, kill him._

"Piss off, Sans." Seriff snapped at his counterpart, a snarl revealing his fangs. His body was rigid and stiff, while his sockets narrowed and filled with so much spite. If Blueberry wasn't holding him down, he would be be blasting them all to fucking hell.

"..." Sans didn't immediately respond, his speculative gaze shifting over the captive Aussie as he was carried towards the portal.

Seriff was... different, it was easy to see. So much so, that it wasn't inaccurate to say that more than just his personality had changed over the past twenty years. 

Instead of a sleeveless black tunic, he now wore a plaid button up shirt in dark shades of purple and black. The hoodie he used to wear was nowhere to be seen, making this new shirt visible... and without his sash being used as a belt, his tail was visibly loose and swaying with agitation.

His bones possessed more cracks and scars than they had so long ago. Most notable of these were the deep scar caused by the damage to his blaster, and a scar over his left eyesocket that looked startlingly similar to that of Edge. Sans was nearly distracted by the sheer spite within those sockets, but he continued his analysis of the Aussie skeleton.

Upon the proximal phalanx of Seriff's middle finger was a silver ring that appeared to be a scaled sea serpent; the ancestor of dragons coiled snugly around the bone. And, it was difficult to see behind the legs pinned to his chest, but the top buttons of his plaid shirt were unbuttoned so you could see both his black tank top, and the necklaces that laid resting on it. One with a yin-yang symbol and the other with star-engraved dogtags.

Finally, it seemed that he'd found a new greatsword to replace his previously lost one. The blade was larger, its metal polished to a perfect shine and its edges expertly maintained. The only indication that it had been used recently was a smudged handprint of dust upon the leather handle...

Seriff had killed someone recently.

There were likely other differences- the Classic Sans couldn't remember what pants and shoes Seriff had been wearing when he'd fought them that last time- but this was enough. He was different, had been changed by however long he'd spent under the influence of Nightmare and his group, and Sans was certain that the only thing keeping him from fighting or fleeing them right now was the powerful grip Blueberry held him in.

Said restrained counterpart raised a bone brow at the two lazier skeletons and their wandering eye lights. "Ya know if you take a picture, it might last longer. Hell I'll sign it if you're _such_ a big fan," He scoffed. 

Beside Sans, Honey came to a similar conclusion, and tilted his head slightly to whisper so Seriff wouldn't hear. "the prototype is in the lab, i know that much, but ya think the others got the final product ready?"

A phone was pulled out, and after a quick text, the shorter skeleton nodded in confirmation. "all we gotta do is get him to the mansion, and sci needs to be around to configure it right."

"good."

Seriff narrowed his sockets suspiciously at the two when they broke into whispers he couldn't hear, but it's not like he could do much other than snarl, growl, and swear. However, he went uncharacteristically quiet when the mansion came into view, his eyelights looking off to the side. 

Nightmare was going to kill him when he got back.

"SERIFF, ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL? WE'VE CHANGED UP THE PUZZLES IN THE SURROUNDING WOODS SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE, AND SOME OF THE PAPYRUSES AND I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE LANDSCAPING, AND THERE'S A GARDEN NOW! ME AND RAZZ CULTIVATED A WHOLE SECTION OF IT BY OURSELVES!"

Blueberry, in both high hopes and a calculated move, attempted to redirect Seriff's attention to their destination. True to his proclamation, it was quite beautiful; it almost looked as though Life herself had visited to spruce up the place a bit.

...somehow, it hadn't changed much at all.

Arista, now following along directly behind the chattering Blueberry and the captured Seriff, was given a few suspicious glances from Sans and Honey. While she was welcome around the Mansion, she was also welcome within Nightmare's realm, a free spirit capable of going anywhere she pleased. Essentially, she could've brought Seriff back years ago... and they didn't know if she had ever tried to.

Let's just say, the lazy skeletons of the Mansion didn't appreciate this much, although they did understand her reasoning why. The Multiverse had been tampered with enough by their collective actions, enough so that they'd needed to pile into the original universe together in order to keep it from collapsing. Thus, the female skeleton's self-imposed restriction of non-interference was of sound logic, and they could understand her lack of activity.

It was so similar to their own, after all.

"OH! BY THE WAY SERIFF, YOUR ROOM IS JUST AS YOU LEFT IT!"

"Ah Yes, Empty. Just like my soul." Seriff raised a brow, giving a very unenthusiastic look. "Well, except my mini-fridge I believe. Which is about right. Food is pretty much the only way to my soul."

"EMPTY? I LIKE TO THINK OF IT AS FULL OF POTENTIAL!"

"And I like to refer to that as false hope."

"...AT LEAST YOU GET TO REDECORATE?"

"Ah yes, with all that money I don't have and nonexistent freedom that I totally possess."

From the back of the group, Honey called forward, "online shopping is a thing, y'know. the internet is a wonderful place."

"AND YOU'RE WITH US! AND TECHNICALLY, WE'RE YOU! IT'D BE RUDE NOT TO HELP YOU OUT EVEN IF YOU ONLY CONSIDER THE PHILOSOPHY OF BEING GOOD TO YOURSELF."

"doesn't ink have that entire shed full of paint buckets near the gardens? we could probably start there."

"HE SAYS THOSE ARE FOR HIS PERSONAL USE. NOT SURE WHY HE NEEDS SO MUCH PAINT, BUT I SUPPOSE HE DOES DO A LOT OF WORK TO KEEP THE MULTIVERSE STABLE."

....

Totally filing that away for later. 

No reason in particular. 

Nope.

Not at all.

Oh... wait...

He groaned, "Fuck, now I have t'deal with the Rainbow Fucker."

"DON'T BE RUDE SERIFF. HIS NAME IS INK."

"Already you're asking too much of me and you haven't even dragged me into the fucking house yet."

At the back of the group, Sans and Honey choked on their respective condiments, staring at Blueberry in bewilderment. They... didn't know how he knew who Seriff was talking about. He was supposed to be the innocent one!

Maybe it was because was a Sans. Sanses were rarely what they appeared to be... Or he could've just been guessing what Seriff meant. 

Yeah, that made sense. Blueberry was, along with Papyrus, the most innocent of them all.

uNLESS HE'D BEEN PLAYING THEM ALL FOR FOOLS ALL ALONG!

............

Nah, he probably just guessed. Ink did have that sash of rainbow paint vials, and there weren't many other skeletons of rainbow color style regularly dropping into the Mansion.

Seriff scowled even further when they entered the house, looking to see if anything else had changed during his stay with Nightmare. 

It-

It hadn't changed.

Well except for the TV. 

Windows looked like they had been replaced quite a few times by now. 

"You uh.. you all seem pretty insistent on staying consistent aren't ya?" He spoke, raising a brow.

As those within the nearby rooms began to react to hearing Seriff's voice for the first time in years- i.e. peering through doorways and stumbling down the stairs- Sans prepared to answer.

"well, it's kinda hard to change when it seems like the entire multiverse wants you to stay in a certain time period for romantic eligibility purposes."

There was a pause.

"Alright, I'll admit. You have a point." Seriff sighed at his classic counterpart.

Anything further was, alas, cut off by a smol version of Sans wearing goggles on his skull and a fluffy jacket in two tones of blue, rushing into the room on his untied blue boots. 

Seriff turned his mismatched gaze onto his younger counterpart at the kids arrival. Oh hey, he remembered this kid. They never officially met, but he did meet QT Papyrus at one point while checking their universe out. After discovering that everyone was still a kid he labeled it as an 'untouchable' until they grew up. Afterwards he told the young Papyrus goodbye and left to tell Nightmare the state of the AU. 

"Hey Seriff, me and my bro haven't met you yet, but it's nice to meet ya now! I'm a Sans too, but you probably figured that out right after seeing this younger skull of yours."

Did... did he just call Seriff old?

"Anyways, call me TK! My bro is around here somewhere, so if ya see him, be nice okay? We wouldn't want you to experience an unfortunate end to your timeline."

"Honestly pipsqueak, ending my timeline would probably be the best thing that ever happened to it." He remarked dryly. "But don't worry, I don't pick on kids. Unless they're brats. Then I just scare the hell outta them."

"I'll hold ya to it. Cya!" With that, the energetic Sans ran off to the staircase, bumping into and knocking a descending Tone Sans slightly off balance.

Blueberry, still holding Seriff firmly against his chest, hummed a cheerful tune as his brother went off in search of Sci. "ALRIGHT, BECAUSE SCI ISN'T HERE YET, WE KINDA NEED TO RESTRAIN YOU FOR A BIT. MY APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE IF THE ACCOMMODATIONS ARE UNCOMFORTABLE, BUT WE DON'T KNOW HOW DEEPLY NIGHTMARE'S INFLUENCE REACHES."

The verbal cue taken, a comfortable chair with various straps attached was pulled in from another room, and Sans merely shrugged when he was looked at. "eh, it's true kid. you know how it is when dealing with unknowns and threats."

A chair. They were going to keep him strapped down in a fucking _chair_ until Sci arrived with whatever they were waiting for.

...at least they were taking the threat he posed seriously.

"Oh wow. Kinky." Seriff replied with a raised brow. "Which room did you get it from? Underlust Sans, or his brother?"

"NEITHER! WE GOT IT FROM ASYLUMTALE!"

Ah.

"Well, tell him I said 'Hi' next time you see him." He replied casually as they strapped him in. He tested the restraints slightly. Tight, but not uncomfortable. "Gee. It's like I never left. I feel so at home."

"THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!"

"this ain't kansas, blue." Passing through one of the doorways, Red entered the room, and paused. His expression went from openly amused to cold neutrality within seconds, and without saying another word, he approached to tighten the straps a bit. The others watched this with some measure of caution, taking in the taut tension between the Fell and Sielu Sanses...

Nice to know that Red could hold a grudge for at least a decade.

Seriff rolled his eyes at the other tightening his straps, before grinning in a falsely polite manner, "Ah, Red! Haven't seen you in while. When did we last talk? Hmm. Oh right!" He twisted his hand a little from its restraints and pointed at his cracked jaw, held together only by the now permanent black cement like substance between them. "When ya nearly took of my jaw. Thanks for that by the way. It was pretty fun spending at least a month recovering."

Who said Red was the only one holding a grudge?

He paused, before tilting his head thoughtfully, "At least, I think? I dunno. All th' days kinda blurred together while I was all delusional from the poison. My only memories during that time were of my screams and Nightmare cursing when I almost died." He gave a sharp grin, "Good times!"

Several skeletons gave each other uncomfortable looks, and watched as Red returned the sharp grin. "oh yeah, that month or so was a great time for me as well. nothin' like seein' the person ya care the most for layin' on his deathbed, unresponsive for a couple weeks until yer finally fuckin' forced to do shit to 'is soul so he'll live."

The strap around Seriff's arm was tightened as far as it could go without breaking his radius and ulna, although Red was certainly tempted to return the favor from that battle all those years ago. 

"so let's cut through the polite shit. i don't give a damn about what dumbass rehabilitation bullshit these guys plan on puttin' ya through. if you take even one step outta line, i will be happy ta bring yer shitty existence to an end, gaster-style. and 'ey, maybe yer old man will be waitin' to greet ya when you arrive... i wouldn't wanna find out if i were you."

Seriff's eyelights widened a fraction when Edge was mentioned, and looked to the side. He was quiet for a few moments, his eyes closed, "....So he had to have something done to his soul too huh?" He muttered, before letting out a soft snort and opening his eyes once more, "How ironic."

Fortunately, ~~or unfortunately,~~ at Red's mentioning of Gaster, he reverted back to his cheeky self.  "Ah, I see your memory is still impeccable Red! You must so obviously remember that my Gaster isn't my dad." His eyelights traveled down to his restraints, "Although you really shouldn't have to worry about me taking a step. After all, I can't move so-" He shrugged, "Suppose we don't have to worry about that."

It was with a snort that the Fell Sans slapped Seriff's shoulder, a movement that seemed friendly enough, but one that probably took the bound skeleton down a few decimal points of HP or so. 

"yea, whatever. twenty years ain't the best on a guy's memory. besides," Red's grin was displayed once more, eyelights cast fondly towards the ceiling, "my dad would be more dangerous to ya anyways."

With that, the shorter skeleton left the room, and Papyrus coughed lightly from where he stood nearby.

"WELL THAT WAS UNCOMFORTABLE. SO! SERIFF!" Effortlessly, the chair and the skeleton strapped into it were lifted into the Classic's gloved hands, and carried off into the living room where a bigger TV was located. "OUR FAVORITE SEXY RECTANGLE HAS COME OUT WITH MANY NEW RELEASES SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE! I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOUR REACTIONS TO THEM!"

"uh, bro, you don't plan on watching them all in one go, right?"

"THAT IS NONSENSE, BROTHER. HONESTLY, SOMETIMES I WONDER IF YOU BELIEVE ME TO BE FIVE INSTEAD OF FORTY FIVE!"

"Forty fi-" Seriff's eyesockets widened in surprise. "Oh. Oh damn." He burst into laughter, confusing and disturbing some of the skeletons. At the others' confusion, he stifled his laughter long enough to reply, "Oh mate, it's only been been ten years for me."

He rested his head against the chair, looking up at the roof himself, "Then again it makes sense I suppose. Time is an illusion. An irrelevant thing, only created by those on the mortal plane because the thought of infinity disturbed them. In order to give them some sort of control over their meaningless life, they created a way to 'measure' it. So time actually holds no actual value."

Pausing in his rambling, Seriff tilted his head. He zoned out for what seemed like a moment to him, but was probably longer. Then again, as he said, time was irrelevant.

The nearby expert on magic time and space shenanigans, Arista, could only smirk and nod in agreement. She knew better than most of the other skeletons just how relative time was, due to her uncontrolled travels between various realities and the void in the past, and it was her agreement that had the other skeletons dropping their confusion on weird time shit. If she understood it, then they were probably thinking too hard about it.

Papyrus, with a huff of amusement at the expressions around him, set Seriff's chair comfortably down next to the couch and smiled amicably. "RIGHT THEN, I DO BELIEVE THAT 'IF EVERY DARE HAD A FLAIR' IS AN EXCELLENT CHOICE FOR OUR MARATHON STARTER! HOPEFULLY WE CAN GET THROUGH IT WITHOUT BEING INTERRUPTED!"


	6. Oh, He's Totally Feline Fine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 is not Kissy or Cutie. It's trash. Zero stars. 
> 
> Four stars for Dadmare tho.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ulti: So apparently Nightmare has a Facebook, cool.  
> Shadow: :3

They had left him alone for several minutes.

_Several minutes._

How could they have forgotten that the straps were made only of leather? Actually, better question, how had they forgotten that the straps were made of leather, and that Seriff was half _leopard_? He had claws for fucks sake! True they weren't there all the time, but that shouldn't have stopped the question of whether or not he had them. 

Either way he still got a good laugh at it, even if he was captured again.

Afterwards he was being restrained using magic bonds, and under the ever watchful eye that was Honey and Red. "Aw come on guys, how did you expect me to waste that _purr_ fect oppurtunity?"

He hadn't stopped pulling cat puns for the last two hours. 

At least until Science Sans came along.

He now understood why they'd been waiting for him, this understanding brought to him by the letter B. B for bullshit, or bracelet, which was currently what the nerdy skeleton was bringing around his wrist.

"Now, let me know if this starts to hurt. The rate of magic extraction should be uncomfortable at first, but I'm not enough of a sadist as to make it painful."

The bracelet worked by transferring the magic of its wearer to both a sample collector and the environment around it, leaving only enough magic to sustain the wearer's body and nothing more. In its prototype stages, it drained enough magic to put the wearer into a coma that they couldn't wake up from until the bracelet was removed, but that extreme was corrected in this version. However, this attribute lived on as an emergency setting; if Seriff lashed out in any way, it could be activated with the press of a button.

There were also safeguards regarding to the bracelet's removal. Primarily, it could only be removed by Sans, Sci, Giant, or Honey, but in an emergency it could be removed by the combination of a Sans and a Papyrus that lived within the Multiverse Mansion. This worked by detecting the magic of those touching it, comparing it to a specific combination set as the 'lock' code.

So yeah, long story short, this bracelet was a heaping load of bullshit.

"Aaaaand there we go. Nice and secure. Attempting to remove it yourself will send a signal to some of us, and attempting to use magic while wearing it will probably result in a shock. Magic doesn't like being used when it's in low stock... Oh, and you might need to eat more than usual, in order to keep up healthy levels, but we've got you covered."

"....I honestly don't know how you expect me to try to take this thing off considering I have only _one fucking hand_." ~~Why do you think he wasn't wearing any bracelets even though he had necklaces and a ring?~~ "But I get the picture mate."

The pain that came with extracting Seriff's magic wasn't really that bad. Honestly, after living through Nightmare's poison, pain had been a pretty hard thing to affect him. According to the incarnation of negativity himself, it was because he had spent several weeks screaming under extreme pain as he nearly died. 

His soul still twitched when he thought about it. 

Seriff eyed the bracelet for a little bit, before trying to summon a small bone...

...and immediately got nearly half his health taken away for trying. But don't blame the bracelet just yet.

His magic was a funny thing. It worked for him as well as any other, but had its repercussions if not... careful. Apparently, the moment the magic realized it couldn't be used, it turned its feelings of the situation onto Seriff. Kinda like a 'IF YOU KNEW THIS WAS GONNA HAPPEN, WHY THE FUCK DID YOU TRY BITCH?' kinda thing.

Seriff blinked a few times as his hand literally _steamed_ from the earlier talked about repercussions for trying to summon it when unable to be used.  "Welp," he mused with a raised brow and small smile, "that hurt."

Sci peered over the steam rising from Seriff's hand, his glasses glinting slightly in the light as he moved. "Interesting. I wasn't aware of your magic being so reactive... Could someone heal his hand?"

With a hum of amusement from someone nearby, the Aussie's hand was healed, his HP topped out again. Hopefully he had learned his lesson, and this wouldn't happen again... Hey, he might be evil, but they didn't want him to be unnecessarily harmed!

"Okay, everything is all set. Anyone wanna show Seriff the joys of the human internet so he can redecorate his empty room?" It was an amused glance the scientist cast around now, and when his question was answered with a nod from Lust Sans, the amusement only grew.

"Right... you two have fun. And hey, being essentially magicless like me isn't that bad. I'm sure you'll get used to it." With that, he left the room, and went off to the labs downstairs. He still had to work on something in his own universe, a new project his Gaster had thought of involving one of the human souls.

_Get used to not having Magic._

_It won't be that bad._

**_Bitch what the fuck do you think he used when making breakfast or other essentials?_ **

Seriff pinched the bridge of his nasal bone, muttering something under his breath before forcing himself to calm down. 

_You can't kill anyone here. You're out matched, and at a disadvantage._

He raised his head and turned towards Lust Sans, shoving his hand into his pocket, "Lead the way, King of all Kinks."

"with _pleasure_ ," Lust responded, linking his arm with Seriff's own. "the joys of the internet await."

* * *

After ordering a shit ton of things for his room, (and ignoring most of the suggestions that Lust pointed out) it had been pretty late. So everyone headed to bed, with the exception of Seriff, who didn't have a bed yet. So instead, he passed out on the couch in the main living room....

For about five minutes.

**_Seriff! Those socks you bought are evil~_ **

**_They're gonna kill you~_ **

"Alright you daft bastard I'm up." Seriff muttered grumpily, pulling out his phone and getting onto facebook messenger.

 **Aussie Son:** The fuck ya want this time?

 **Your Best Nightmare:** You were supposed to check in two hours ago. Where r u?

 **Aussie Son:** ..Ok so funny story. 

**Aussie Son:** I may

 **Aussie Son:** Or May not

 **Aussie Son:** Have been caught by the MM skeletons and have a bracelet that makes me unable to use magic.

 **Your Best Nightmare:** ............

 **Your Best Nightmare:** ............................

 **Your Best Nightmare:** ..................

 **Your Best Nightmare:** This could work to our advantage.

 **Aussie Son:** Dare I ask?

 **Your Best Nightmare:** Yes. Yes you do. I didn't raise a coward.

 **Your Best Nightmare:** Anyways. Stay there. Spy on them.

 **Your Best Nightmare:** They probably think you've been under my control this whole time. Play it up. 

**Your Best Nightmare:** And report back to me when I give you the signals to.

 **Aussie Son:** ..You didnt technically raise me? but aight.

 **Aussie Son:** Goodie. I get to betray everyone I once loved and cared for again! My greatest dream come true. 

**Aussie Son:** You may have a point though. They keep talking as though Im being controlled in some sort of way. So I guess this could work.

 **Your Best Nightmare:** Only the best nightmares for you my son :3

 **Your Best Nightmare:** And shush. I came to your graduation and taught you fun evil stuff. I'm dadmare now.

_[ **Your Best Nightmare** has changed their name to **Your Best Dadmare** ]_

**Your Best Dadmare:** Accept it

 **Aussie Son:** ... 

**Aussie Son:** ...

 **Aussie Son:** I honestly have no idea how to react to this. But I feel like if I refuse youre just gonna spam me with that weird ass sock nightmare so okay.

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Great

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Now go back to sleep. You need more sleep.

 **Aussie Son:** Literally says the one who gives me weird ass nightmares to wake me up

 **Aussie Son:** ...

 **Aussie Son:** But thanks. I appreciate it kinda.

 **Aussie Son:** Talk to you later, ya?

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Yes. I'll send Cross and Dusty to the Mansion if you don't :3

 **Aussie Son:** Oh god. Itll be on the headlines of every newspaper.

 **Aussie Son:** "Concerned Dad sends Murderers after Australian Son after not Getting a Reply to His Kitty Face."

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Shut up

 **Your Best Dadmare:** I'm evil

 **Your Best Dadmare:** I'm allowed to use whatever emojis I fucking want to

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Now go to sleep. You have a lot of acting to do and making breakfast is gonna be a bitch without your magic  >:3

 **Aussie Son:** Lol ok ok Im goin bed. ttyl

With that, Seriff cleared the chat and logged off of facebook. He shook his head with amusement before closing his eyes once more. 

This... should be interesting.

* * *

He woke up to someone climbing on top him. 

"Papy, no! Older me said he might be dangerous-"

"It's okay Sans! I know him!"

Ah. It was the Quantumtale bros. Which meant-

Someone tried to shake him awake, "Mr. Seriff! It's time to get up."

Seriff groaned in response, shoving his face deeper into the pillow of his makeshift bed. "Kid, c'mon. Let a man sleep."

"Nooooo! It's too late to be sleeping!" The Quantumtale Papyrus pouted, bouncing on Seriff's chest to wake him further. His goggles slid down over his eyesockets at one point, making him pause to fix them before he started shaking the larger skeleton again.

"Wake uuuuup! Please!?"

"Kid if I wake up now I'm just gonna pass out later. And that ain't no _fibula_." There was a great pause from the younger skeleton, and Seriff did all he could to keep his mouth from growing into a grin. He was rewarded not long after when the younger skeleton spoke, in the most disappointed voice he's ever heard.

"Mr. Seriff, I believed in you."

The Aussie snorted, letting out soft laughs before sitting up. "Okay, Okay. I'm up. I'm sorry." He ruffled the small Papyrus' hat before tilting his head, "Huh. you've grown last I saw ya. How long has it been?"

With a squeal of victory, TK Paps climbed down and tugged on Seriff's shirt as he answered, "About two years! We've spent one year here though, after a kid that could transform into a skeletal cat thing found us!"

Ah, that must've been BabyBlaster Sans. The adults of the Mansion often let the kids introduce other kid AU's to them, both as a way to encourage the already-present kids and as a way to show the new kids that they were trustworthy. Of course, they were watching the whole time, just in case it turned out like LittleHorror... Now _that_ was an interesting Kid AU.

Of course they would try adding kids to their little posse. Ugh. He was gonna have to bitch someone out about that later. 

"2 years? Damn. I was gonna bring you a Christmas present." Seriff sighed, before getting up. He rubbed the back of his cervical vertebrae before stretching. "Welp. I dunno about you two, but waffles sound pretty good right now."

"With butter and syrup or just butter? FellSwap Papyrus drinks the syrup before anyone else can use it. One time we found him inside the cabinet with the syrup hugged to his chest... it was weird."

TK Sans shrugged at his bro nearby, his face scrunching up in distaste. "Syrup is too sweet for me anyways. Ketchup is better."

"Sans. You know what happened the last time you had ketchup on waffles."

"Yeah yeah, I learned my lesson. Save the ketchup for foods it actually goes well with. But ya never know what something is gonna be like until you try it!"

"I...can actually see that happening," Seriff sighed. "You think it was weird finding him in the cabinet with the syrup huh? Well I raise you one Classic Sans crying when he found out the ketchup was all gone, and throwing in as a support, is Underswap Papyrus with his mood swings when we ran out of money and couldn't get anymore honey."

He shook his head while he walked into the kitchen, the two kids following after him. "It was like watching a pregnant woman mate. He was just everywhere. One of us would once in a while shove different sacrificial items like chocolate under his room door before running away and proclaiming 'Satan has been fed!' " His face then turned grim. "It was a dark time for the Manor when everyone else ran out of their condiment too."

Seriff stopped walking for a moment to reflect on the horrible Purge-like state that took over the Mansion. But he quickly snapped out of it long enough to start grabbing things from the cabinet, "As for your earlier question TK, both. Its only for the three of us anyways so he really shouldn't throw a fit..." Wait, was Syrup and Raspberry aware that he was back?

....

Didn't he round house kick Syrup straight in the spine?

Shit, he hoped it didn't cause any permanent damage.

Unfortunately while his mind was else where, he went to summon the flour from the upper cabinet... and got a great reminder on why he wasn't supposed to do that. 

_DON'T CURSE IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN!_

He hissed softly, clenching his hand as it steamed once more, before regaining his composure and sighing, "Yup. I forgot about that. I'll admit that was pretty stupid of me..."

TK Papyrus got a look of deep concentration upon his face, and with a huff of effort, turned back the time of the universe to just before Seriff got injured. The universe seemed to stutter and skip for a second, and when the desired time had been reached- after Seriff had last spoken- he released his magic with a little victory dance. 

Alas, this prompted TK Sans to release a groan of displeasure, and he began scolding his little bro.

"Pap, you don't rewind time for a small injury like that! He wasn't dying, it was okay! His hand could've been healed with a monster candy, easy, and if any of the other Sanses were awake right now you'd be in so much trouble."

Seriff blinked a few times, before looking down at his hand. Alright. He would admit. That was pretty damn cool. "While I appreciate the gesture kid, your brother has a point ya know." He mused, before his eyelights flickered to the doors. "But since it was just the three of us, I won't say anything if you don't."

He then turned his attention to the cabinet and sighed, remembering what it was like when he first lost his limb. Memories he would rather not look back upon. "Welp. Look likes its time to do this old fashioned style."

It took about 30 minutes to do what used to take him 10, and it would have taken him longer if the kids hadn't helped him out. After another 15 minutes, the sweet smell of the small amount of cinnamon he added to the recipe wafted through the kitchen. He added the last of the waffle batter to the waffle iron, and set two plates of sweet fluffy goodness down on the table for the kids. The sustenance was completed when the final touches of butter, syrup, Reddi whip were added. 

He had to wait a little longer for his, but it was worth it watching the kids wolf down theirs.

"Thanks Mister Seriff!"

"I haven't had waffles this good in mooooooonths," TK proclaimed around a mouthful of food, only to get a napkin thrown in his face by his smaller bro.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, it's rude!" The Quantumtale Papyrus punctuated his statement with a fork pointed towards TK, who snickered and wiped his mouth off with the napkin.

"Alright, alright. _Ulna_ try harder."

"And no puns at the table!"

"C'mon, we both know you find them _humerus_."

"SAAAAAAAANS!"

Seriff chuckled, sitting down with his own plate and had _just_ managed to take a few bites before the other skeletons in the Manor decided this was the _best_ time to file into the dining room and kitchen.

"somethin' smells good," Honey chuckled, looking over at where Seriff and the children were seated, "any more left?"

"No." Seriff snorted in response, "I didn't make any for you guys."

Glancing between Seriff and Honey, the two Quantumtale kids were quick to finish their plates, before thanking the Aussie and running off. They could feel the tension in the air, and haha, they didn't want any part of it.

Smart kids.

"huh." Regarding the two, Honey took a glance at their empty plates in the sink, before wandering over to the fridge for some sugared honey iced tea. 

"i remember you making breakfast with g on more than one occasion. best breakfasts we had, actually. thought you would've made more, like back then."

Seriff bristled at the mention of when he was younger, before narrowing his eyes.

You see, last night Seriff figured out that the more subtle his arm movement, the softer his bracelet jingled. Vice versa, the more dramatic his gestures, the louder his bracelet. So lets just say...

Mettaton was about to be proud as fuck.

**Salt Mode Activated.**

"Well gee, I wonder _why_ I decided only to make enough for me and the kids." Seriff waved his hand theatrically, causing his bracelet to jingle,  "I mean I oh so _obviously_ could have." More loud jingling.  "But I dunno. It's kinda like something was _stopping_ me. It was a real _block_ on my mood." The jingling was getting louder...  "So for some reason, I just decided to _restrain_ myself from making anymore than what the kids and I could eat..."

He stabbed a few pieces of his waffles with his fork before humming, "I wonder," **Jingle.** "Fucking," **Jingle.** " _Why?_ " **Jingle.**

Inside Seriff's pocket, his phone began to vibrate, once, twice, and thrice. It was, however, momentarily ignored in favor of hearing the response of Honey and the other present skeletons. 

Blueberry was the first to speak. "I AM DETECTING A HIGH AMOUNT OF SARCASM HERE."

"What, me? Sarcasm? I would never."

"eh, let him be _steamed_ for a bit, bro. i'm sure we wouldn't find this situation any _sweeter_ than he does if we were in his place."

"PAPY, NO PUNS AT THE EXPENSE OF SERIFF. THAT'S JUST RUDE."

"so is all the _salt_ he's using to _spice_ up his communication skills."

This continued on for some time, and as more food puns were thrown about, Seriff took the moment to check his phone.

_[ **Your Best Dadmare** has changed your nickname to **Salty Son**. ]_

**Your Best Dadmare:** I could sense the salt from here.

 **Your Best Dadmare:** I'm so proud of u :3

 **Salty Son:** Yay! :3

Seriff put his phone back into the inner pocket of his leather jacket before returning his full attention to his waffles. Emptying his plate in record speed, he took his plate over to the sink to be washed later.

As the others set about getting food for their own consumption, Sans Classic spoke up with his ketchup on hand, eyelights watching Seriff's moving form with speculation. "so, seriff..." He took a swig, and set down the bottle before leaning forward.

"what was up with you in that battle we had?"

Shit.


	7. Memories and Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hopes are not allowed here. Step aside, Hope, you're being replaced with Memories.

He honestly should have seen this coming. 

Everyone in the room went dead silent at Sans' question, and Seriff could feel a lot of eye lights on his back. He gave a long sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know." He answered finally.

"you don't know? how could you not-"

"Look mate, when Nightmare pulled me out of the bull pit, I was pretty fucked up." He plucked a clean coffee cup off the strainer and proceeded to fill it. "My magic was low, my HP was lower, and to top it all off during Nightmare's haste to get me outta there he accidentally poisoned me. I spent a month or two recoverin'. Hell, I nearly died few weeks in..."

He paused in his coffee making long enough to put a hand where over his Soul would be, his eye sockets void of light...

Seriff hoped they would never find out how close he had been to dusting. 

His soul twitched.

He pulled his hand away, his eye lights flickering back on to look back down at his coffee. "Anyway, The magical and physical exhaustion took its toll mentally. Can't remember jack shit 'cept for Red tearing into my Gaster Blaster and near the end of Edge's fight. Everything before, after, and in between on that day s'all blurry."

Nearby, having entered the kitchen for some of her own favored condiment, Arista hummed in acknowledgement. "It isn't unusual for near-death experiences to affect one's memory. I've experienced that a couple times myself- once thanks to a Dusttale Sans and another time thanks to an UnderSwap Sans."

That was an interesting combination of skeletons to almost die to, and the skeletons knew that she'd probably answer them if they asked what caused those situations, but they had received too many answers that made them question existence to ask her about this.

"I did eventually recover said memories, with the assistance of a friend, but that isn't an option in Seriff's case. Especially with that new accessory of his- it would be nothing less than an exquisite agony to even be at the location without any sort of natural defenses afforded to him."

Retrieving a clear rainbow glass from the cabinet and a white plastic spoon, the female skeleton served herself some whipped cream in a much fancier way than necessary, a gleam of amusement in her eyelights visible to anyone who looked at her strangely.

"right..." Slowly, Honey looked away from the odd skeleton, and returned his attention to Seriff. "so, the entire battle is a blur for you. events-wise, that is. but do you remember what you were feeling at that time?"

Seriff plopped back down in his original seat, setting his coffee down and resting his chin in his hand. Years of accidentally touching his jaw and causing pain from the sealed brack had made it to where he tried avoiding touching it all together. 

What had he been feeling on that day?

Everything was blurred and fuzzy, blobs of color and muffled talking. Pulses of different souls at the time accelerating, different souls fueled on different emotions. Anger, sadness, betrayal, glee, amusement...

But what had _he_ been feeling?

.......

"No. Yes. Maybe?" He sighed finally, rubbing his forehead. "There was some horror? Definitely a lot a fear. Nothing else comes to mind." He pulled his hand away to take a sip of his coffee, "My head hurts trying to think about it."

Despite his current caffeine intake, Seriff was getting pretty tired real quick. Trying to remember that day was pretty hard on him.

As though this answered some unspoken question, some of the various skeletons present nodded solemnly, and the more optimistic ones sighed quietly. There wasn't much more they could ask right now anyways, with that headache of his.

Sans sat down nearby, taking a swig of his ketchup. "i guess if it hasn't come back in this long, it probably won't ever."

_Perhaps it's better that way-_

Seriff sighed, pushing his chair back and getting up. His coffee only had a few sips taken out of it, but he wasn't in the mood for any more. He said nothing more as he left the others in the tense silence, ignoring the calls from the more innocent skeletons. Instead heading into the less stressing environment known as the living room. 

Fuck his life.

Already present within the living room was a Sans unfamiliar to Seriff, clad in musically-themed clothing and seated in a chair off to the side of the room. It was noteworthy that this seat didn't have a great position for watching the TV, but it was located nicely for hearing it...

The Sans' sockets were closed, a blue headset apparently feeding him some entertaining music, but he still reacted to the Aussie's presence.

"heya... you must be seriff. i've heard things about you, but i haven't heard things _from_ you... and i wanted to talk with you at length before making any judgements." He turned to Seriff, his bonelids opening to reveal utterly empty sockets. These weren't creepy in their emptiness, however- it was somehow evident that he simply didn't have working eyelights, perhaps the underdeveloped magic sending out signals that it was incomplete.

"the others call me tone. it's nice to meet you."

"If you want info on what happened on that day, I can't give you any. Just ask the others for more details." The Aussie sighed, plopping down in his favorite chair. He wasn't at all bothered by the fact the other had no eye lights. When you live with Nightmare for almost half the year and hang out with some questionable company, you're kinda desensitized to creepy shit. 

"If ya got any questions about afterward though I can probably supply you."

Tone nodded, seemingly unbothered by the restriction he'd been given on questioning. Given his first question, this was understandable. "have you killed anyone?"

Wow. This guy was going for the hard ones. 

"A few. But in my defense they tried to kill me first." Seriff shrugged, "Besides, they weren't the original timeline for their AU so they were going to get destroyed anyways."

"have you ever killed a defenseless being?" Sometimes being attacked first wasn't a good enough reason to kill someone. A child attacking you doesn't pose that much of a threat... same for a sick or elderly person. Tone wanted to be certain that Seriff's reasoning was sound before continuing.

"No." Seriff narrowed his eye sockets. Why does everyone always assume it was an innocent person? "What reason would I have for killing a defenseless person?"

"there're always those who will be entertained by the pain or demise of others, just as there'll always be those who find such things to be aberrant. the question i asked wasn't an assumption of either."

Tilting his head towards Seriff, the blind skeleton continued, "questions are useless if they're tainted by bias. the opinions one has on a past situation don't affect the situation, therefore opinions are useless until all the facts have been obtained. that's why every judge has a jury; and judges who are isolated from their juries become... wrongfully biased."

Seriff tilted his head, his sockets still narrowed, before finally turning his attention to the ceiling, "I like you. Gotta good head on your shoulders. You understand things better than the others so far."

"thanks." Lapsing into a comfortable moment of silence, the blind Sans continued along his previous train of thought, before speaking up again.

"so, what was it like living with nightmare and those guys? arista hasn't said much about them other than their game nights are more amusing than ours."

"It... actually wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be." Seriff hummed thoughtfully, tilting his head, "Nightmare poisoned me, ya but he didn't mean to. He was just trying to seal my wound before it got any worse and tried to get me outta there before I practically dusted myself."

He placed a hand over his sternum for a moment, "I owe him a lot."

"The others weren't bad either. Horror is.... questionable, but he really cares for his bro. He's just tryin' to keep food on the table, ya know? Cross is cool too. Killer has a habit of jumping me for 'surprise training sessions.' " His mouth twitched, "I think he's just finds it amusing how my accent gets thicker when angry and surprised."

His smile growing, Tone turned more towards Seriff, and rested his chin in one hand. "did you have fun with them?"

Seriff shrugged, "Ya. They did good trying to make up the family I lost." He closed his eyes, letting out a yawn. "They may be evil but that technically doesn't mean they're bad guys, ya know?"

His mouth grew into a grin, "And Ari's right, game night over there is so much more interesting."

With an amused smile and a pat to Seriff's shoulder, Tone stood up and set off, the conversation apparently over. "i like you. cya later."

Seriff was not left alone for long, unfortunately, as the other skeletons had learned their lesson the first time. It was Red who soon entered to take watch, accompanied by Sans to prevent him from going off on the Aussie, and the two settled down on the couch to watch some comedy shows. So little had changed.

A small nap wouldn't hurt, right?

..Ugh when did he start turning into his counterparts? Next thing you know he was going to get obsessed with a condiment and get his hoodie back from Error just so he can shove packets of said condiment in the pocket so he wouldn't have to keep getting a new bottle.

.......

He was putting too much thought into this and it was scaring him. 

Seriff closed his eyes, listening to the comedy show as he slowly drifted back to sleep.

* * *

**_'I'm sorry...'_**

_Seriff's soul screamed the words he so desperately wanted to say as he attacked his best friends._

_'I don't want to do this.'_

_He swung his sword at Raspberry and Syrup, fighting without a hint of honor...._

_Honor was for the weak after all._

_He could see Nightmare in corner of his socket, gleefully watching the others try to reason with him, talk with him, try to bring the Seriff they knew and loved back out. To get him to snap out of Nightmare's control..._

_But they didn't know that this was the Seriff they loved, they knew, they cared for, all on his own..._

_Blueberry's words hurt more than everything else so far..._

_No, Edges made him want to cry_

_You cried for help..._

**_But Nobody Came_ **

_**It's only fair, turn your back on them before they turn their back on you.** _

_**You chose this route, you have to stick with it now. No turning back. Besides, look at them. They never once tried to see the other side of things. They are blind to everything that is needed and only focus on what they want. Doesn't that fill you with something? Maybe...** _

_**~~S P I T E?~~ ** _

_He gripped his sword harder as he tried to ignore the little voice in his head that only grew more and more._

_**It wouldn't have lasted long anyways, if you had stayed. They would eventually have seen your ~~CONCEIT~~. They would have cursed at you for having the ~~AUDACITY~~ to stick around... for lying to them for so long...** _

_He shook softly_

_**....Wake up.** _

* * *

An unexpected force dragged Seriff from the clutches of sleep, gripping his sternum and lifting him fully from his chair. As he was moved, faint noises made their way to where his ears would have been, had a skeleton possessed any. Sans, Red- it was them speaking in hushed murmurs to each other, the smoother voice of Sans becoming clear first.

"is he... gonna try to get revenge?"

"nah. m' bro's got more standards 'n that. he doesn't fight disadvantaged opponents." Red's rougher voice responded, as Seriff was forcefully shaken in attempt to wake him up quicker.

Seriff coughed, blinking his lids blearily while he tried to make sense of what the fuck was going on....

Why the hell was he feeling all these emotions?

....What was he dreaming of again?

He brushed it off as another one of those weird dreams that he never remembered and looked up to see who the hell was shaking him-

Oh....

Uh....

Okay.

He now felt a little awkward. 

"Hey Edge," he grinned slowly. "Long time no see I suppose?"

"CORRECT." The scarred skeleton dropped Seriff without further ado; now that the other was awake, they could commence with proper conversation. "COME ON. WE'RE GOING OUT."

"wait, bro, we're not supposed to take seriff out in public yet-"

"DO I NEED TO MENTION THE MANY REASONS WHY THAT DOESN'T APPLY TO ME, OR WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME DO IT WITHOUT ALL OF THE UNNECESSARY BANTER FOR ONCE?"

Red fell silent, and after several moments of staring between Edge and Seriff, nodded once.

"GOOD. NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE US," the Fell Papyrus proceeded to stalk over to the exit nearby, and with a graceful turn, glanced at Seriff from the corner of his scarred eyesocket. "ARE YOU COMING OR WHAT?"

"I... don't even know what the hell is going on." Seriff muttered, getting up from where Edge dropped him. "Should I ask, or should I just follow along to what could no doubt possibly be my undoing in my disadvantaged state?"

He turned his sight toward the kitchen, "....Can I get a cup of coffee first?"

"YEAH, SURE, GO GET YOUR FIX. BUT DON'T TAKE FOREVER. THAT STILL PISSES ME OFF." Edge settled in to wait patiently by the door- and by that, he was actually tapping his bitch-heeled boot upon the wooden floor with clear _impatience_.

"Patience is a virtue Edge." Seriff replied, heading towards the kitchen, "It's a virtue that I will never represent nor have, but a Virtue nonetheless." It takes him less than 3 minutes to make himself a cup of coffee in a to go cup, before he ambles his way back toward Edge, "Welp, at least I can die with a good cup of joe. That's always a plus."

"IT IS ONLY RUDE TO DEPRIVE THOSE SLATED FOR DEATH OF THEIR LAST CONSUMABLES."

Sans and Red shared a glance- Sans seeming silently concerned, and Red appearing to be utterly neutral. It was clearly evident that Red didn't care what his brother did to Seriff... or maybe, he just trusted him to make a decision for him. He didn't exactly have the best track record for making good decisions on his own.

"Which is why prisons always give prisoners who have been death sentenced a final meal of whatever they want," Seriff hummed, drinking from his cup, "Lead the way."

With that, the front door was unceremoniously kicked open, and Edge calmly walked out to guide Seriff away from the Mansion.

...maybe he should've gotten a bigger cup of coffee.


	8. Takin' a Stroll Down Memory Lane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This road is cracked and broken by nature's possession of it. But do the memories lost truly need to be reclaimed?

Once the two were far enough away from the mansion, standing upon a path in the woods, Edge took out his phone and began to text someone. It was odd for the skeleton to be this quiet, somewhat worrisome in fact. However, the silence was soon broken by the sound of light footsteps behind the two...

Edge simply rolled his eyelights and turned to face the new arrival. "NICE OF YOU TO FINALLY ARRIVE. WHAT WERE YOU EVEN DOING BACK THERE, DRUGGING SOMEONE WITH YOUR GREEN MAGIC OR SOMETHING?"

The light footsteps stopped beside the two tall skeletons, and their owner smirked, staring up at the Fell Papyrus roughly twice her height. It became clear that this was Arista, amusingly enough. "I had to keep them from following after us somehow, didn't I?"

Evidently, she was in on whatever Edge had planned. This was nothing less than concerning.

"And I'm immediately worried for my health," Seriff declared, before drinking more of his coffee. He knew he should have gotten a bigger cup... 

Wait...

"Wait what's this about drugging people with Green Magic?"

Her smirk widening, Arista raised a gloved fingertip to her teeth in the typical 'shush' signal, before leaning up against Edge and wrapping an arm around one of his femurs. "Nothing you are to be concerned about. It probably won't be used on you anytime soon."

Probably. Okay then.

"WHATEVER. ARISTA, WE NEED A SHORTCUT. WILL YOU PROVIDE IT OR WILL YOU JUST CONTINUE WASTING OUR TIME?"

"Rude, but expected." She turned towards Seriff, her smirk apparently unchanged. "Now then, are you aware of our destination?"

"OF COURSE HE'S NOT, I HAVEN'T TOLD HIM YET."

"Hush, I was asking him."

"HMPH."

"Arista, Im about as aware of where we are going as Donald Trump is aware of how we're all praying for him to be impeached."

The Aussie waited until the other was done trying to keep her laughter in check before she took them to-

Oh.

Well on the bright side he had a _fantastic_ idea on where they were going.

Outertale.

They were going to Outertale. More specifically the place in the stars the monsters used to live in before the human broke the barrier. 

...Everything was still quite beautiful.

As Arista released her two passengers- that was the primary reason she was there, to act as transportation- Edge stepped forth on the cracked and scarred soil, a somber expression upon his face.

"I HEARD WHAT YOU'D SAID IN THE KITCHEN BEFORE THAT NAP OF YOURS. THAT YOU COULDN'T REMEMBER MOST OF THE DAY YOU LEFT, EXCLUDING CERTAIN PARTS." With a wide gesture ahead of the three, Edge indicated the area that had remained undisturbed all these years, before adding one final comment to his previous statements. "THIS IS THE LAST PLACE WE SAW YOU, IN BATTLE."

Seriff walked out to the middle of the grounds, looking around at the former battle field. 

The ground was torn up pretty badly, and it wasn't uncommon to have to step over or in a small ditch to get where you wanted. One area had a small box like rift, with large holes poking out every fifteen feet. 

Wait...

He gestured to the square, "...My Bone Barrier, right? I've never been very good with em, but I can conjure up a decent one when needed."

Edge nodded, folding his arms as he regarded the location in speculation. "IT WAS CREATED IN ORDER TO PROTECT ERROR. A POWERFUL DEFENSE- IT DIDN'T GO DOWN UNTIL YOU WANTED IT TO."

Seriff nodded, "You should see Azzy's barriers. They're much better than mine."

Sielutale Asriel's barriers could hold for quite a while, they were also much taller than his. 

They just weren't made of fucking ribs like his. 

Because Seriff was hardcore. 

....

And because he was a skeleton.

He turned, tilting his head towards a mountain of shattered rocks and drifting dirt while he drank his coffee. "And what happened there?"

"THAT IS WHERE YOU THREW ME INTO A CLIFF."

Seriff choked, barely managing to keep coffee from spewing out his nose hole and mouth, **_"I threw you into a fucking cliff?!"_**

_'Past Me, what the fuck?'_

Edge nodded, a smirk forming upon his jagged mouth as he regarded the Sielu Sans beside him. "YES. I COMMEND YOU FOR IT, ACTUALLY. THAT MOVE PUT ME OUT OF COMMISSION FOR A GOOD MONTH OR SO."

Seriff looked around the battle fields, quiet for a few minutes. He had to admit he was a little... disappointed that he couldn't remember anything about this battle. He couldn't even remember what he did that day or the day prior. Then again, did he really want to? To remember all the pain he put the others through?

"I cant even remember how many cups of coffee I had that day..." He muttered.

"ONE."

A brow was raised, "Just one?"

Edge gave an affirmative nod, one that Seriff caught through the corner of his eye. He sighed, kicking a space rock.

The rock floated off towards an area of loose water, glowing a dim blue and chasing away the nearby shadows. Torn and tattered Echo flowers were scattered amongst the hovering streams, their whispers faded with the passage of time.

With an unreasonably cheerful tone of voice, Arista brought these things to the attention of the Aussie. "This battleground has remained undisturbed since the day it was destroyed. If you approach the Echo flowers, you might be able to hear some of the words spoken throughout the battle... just be careful not to speak over them."

Seriff paused, looking towards Arista before turning towards the Echo Flowers. To be honest, he's never been a fan of those things, especially since the incident with Undyne and the word ass... and everything that rhymed with ass.

It was a long walk to back to Snowdin. 

A very awkward one too with Asgore following him so they could talk both over tea and to the Dog Brigade. 

....

He wouldn't have changed a damn thing though. Seeing Asgore's face was hilarious. 

Seriff made no noise as he headed towards the flowers, careful not to set them off and give them new sounds.

_......._

The flowers were nearly silent, possessing white noise and static from the time that had passed. It'd take too much effort to decipher what they were saying. There was one flower that still had a distinct voice, however; the voice of the loudest one present in that battle.

_...speak!_

It was only a whisper by now, but the cadence and tone were still clear, identifying its origin as the Fell Papyrus that had brought him there. There were clearly more questions to be asked and answered.

Seriff's eye sockets widened as something flashed in his mind, but it was gone before he could understand what it was. Damn. He had something and then he lost it. 

_'Much like my life if you think about it.'_

Yah, and just like whe he first woke up at Nightmares, his skull hurt a lot. 

He wove through the more static-filled echo flowers, getting close to the one that spoke loudest before turning his attention to the few around it. Maybe they had something too?

There was only one other flower that audibly whispered of that day, its message cut off at an inopportune moment.

_...like he was my own brother..._

It was Nightmare's voice, but who was he referring to? He didn't have a brother, at least not that Seriff knew of. There was that mysterious relationship he had with Dream, but they could've been lovers for all the Aussie knew or cared. Honestly, the Creators weren't that subtle- a guy named Nightmare and a guy named Dream _had_ to be connected somehow.

...Asgore probably got his bad naming skills from one of those Creators in the first place.

Seriff frowned, contemplating it a little longer before heading over to Edge and Arista, "Welp, the only thing I gained from this was a large headache and wondering what the hell Nightmare meant by brother." It was definitely frustrating, not being able to remember that day. But knowing the Manor skeletons, they would probably try and find a way.

Even if he didn't want to remember. 

"I got nothin'." Seriff shrugged, "Can we just go back to the Manor now? I'm getting hungry and my skull is killing me."

"IT HASN'T BEEN MORE THAN TWENTY MINUTES, SERIFF. YOU'VE GONE SOFT AFTER BOONDOGGLING WITH NIGHTMARE ALL THESE YEARS, HAVEN'T YOU?" Edge stared at Seriff, socket to socket, as the years' passing had brought the younger skeleton to his height.

"Hey, I'll have you know Nightmare has some kick ass training regimens." Seriff frowned, narrowing his eyes. ~~No one shall insult his awesome Dad.~~

Arista, nearby, spoke up to derail the current train of thought that Edge was riding. If she hadn't, it was near certain that the Fell Papyrus would challenge the Aussie to a spar, and that was better done back at the Mansion than upon an old battleground. "I believe that a return trip would be wise at this juncture; though I do need to pick up a few things from my home on the way. Do either of you mind taking an extra stop in the Void?"

An extra stop in the Void. The _Void_. She talked about such a thing as though it were a mere trip to the grocery store, and not as though it were the endless expanse of mystery and nothingness that had consumed almost every Gaster and many other unnamed monsters whole. Maybe she was also the type to prank herself through time and space, or consume entire planets whole; who even knew what was the case with her?

He paused in his glare towards Edge to gain a slightly uncomfortable look at Arista, "I dunno Arista. Last time I saw my Gaster I was dunking him into the Core. Plus, I don't think I'm properly prepared for a reunion."

Read: He doesn't have his greatsword.

Read: His magic is blocked.

**Read: He won't be able to properly kill the daft bastard.**

"The probability of running into Gaster is actually incredibly low. As he watches the timelines, the infinite fragments of his overall amalgamation have already seen your wish to not encounter him, and the more respectful and anxious parts will attempt to grant it. Given that Classic Gaster is usually the one in control of the body, your wish for avoidance is nearly guaranteed to be fulfilled."

The shortest skeleton sighed, before offering her hands to the Sans and Papyrus before her. "But I suppose I can skip the side trip if you really don't want to stare into the Void and have the Void stare back."

"I honestly just want to leave and sleep." Leave this place and sleep at the mansion, leave the mansion and sleep over at his place, leave his place and sleep over at Nightmare's place so he can get some free Netflix afterwards...

He mostly wanted to leave the mansion and sleep, but knowing his situation, he was only gonna be able to get one of those things.

"Can do." With physical contact established and a moment or two of concentration, the three skeletons were tugged across dimensions back to the Mansion. The trip was about as disorienting as an ordinary shortcut.

Specifically, they landed in the living room, where Geno and Red were focusing hardcore on a game being played. 

More specifically, the three landed in the way of the gaming skeletons' view of the TV, and caused a slew of swearing and screeching to be heard throughout the building as the both of their characters died.

It's always fun to fuck with the games of people you dislike.


	9. Is This The Real Life?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is This Just Fantasy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS UP AHEAD: READ AT OWN RISK!!

Why was it so hard to say no to kids?

Oh yah. Because they're kids, and no matter how 'bad' you get, kids always seem to still see the good inside and make it come alive.

....

Okay, so Seriff cares for kids.

Even when working with Nightmare for so long, Seriff always had a soft spot for children. Maybe it was because of his Papyrus' death, maybe it was because of Frisk, and Asriel. Who knows? Either way he loved kids.

Unfortunately along with the inability to tell them no, came the inability to take a moment and rest.

"Seriff, look at what I've been learning!" Pup, the BabyBlaster Papyrus, lifted up a tiny hand to point at a tree nearby. Several bones smacked into it; three of them sinking into the bark and wood, two bouncing off to the sides, one going straight through the tree.

The bone that had gone through the tree was a blue bone.

Pup was showing the Aussie his newly learned attack before anyone else- besides his own brother, of course- and with a wide grin, the smol babybones turned to see the reaction of his one-man audience.

Seriff gave a soft smile, trying to shake off the tired feeling from his bones, "That's amazing Pup!" He chuckled. "If I had two hands, I'd clap with so much enthusiasm you'd get knocked over."

God he felt like shit, but seeing the look of pure joy on Pup's face was just too hard to say no to.

"GAAASP!" The babybones rushed over to Seriff and hugged his long legs, squealing into his jeans with incoherent delight. It was only several moments later that he looked up at the Aussie, a suddenly stern expression on his face. How did his mood change so quickly? Nobody knew but Papyruses.

"You're not just saying that to make me happy, right?"

Seriff snorted, trying to refrain from laughing at the fact that Pup had actually said the word 'Gasp' before plopping down so he was more at eye level with the young Papyrus.

...That was probably a bad idea because he nearly felt like passing out right after word, but he managed not to. At least his resolve was stronger than the usual Sans, or else he probably would have.

"Pup, c'mon. You know I'd never lie to ya." He rubbed Pup's skull with affection. "You're takin ya first steps towards protectin th' ones who need it. It's amazing how far you've come in masterin' your attacks so far."

His expression softened just a tad into a smile, "I'm proud of ya. Really I am."

After several seconds of looking over the Aussie before him, checking for sincerity and maybe something else, the BabyBlaster Papyrus nodded and took Seriff's hand in his own. "Okay! Let's go inside now, I'm thirsty, and I'm sure you are too!"

He was slow in his movements, but by way of distraction- he seemed to be looking at everything around him. If one didn't know better, they might think that Pup was being deliberately careful, rather than being merely interested in that butterfly going around them.

Seriff tilted his head at Pup, but shrugged. "Alright. When we get to the house in the next hour or so, how does some sweet tea sound?" He smiled, slightly teasing the smaller one for how slow he was being at the moment.

...That butterfly was pretty beautiful though.

"It sounds pretty _sweet_ to me!" Pup responded to the tease with a pun, and it was like a unicorn had just pranced by. Was that butterfly laced with airborne drugs, or had this smol skelly just not been exposed to puns enough to dislike them yet?

........

The butterfly was drugs. Pass it on. Save a life.

Seriff stared at the younger skeleton for a moment, before turning his head again towards where he saw the butterfly-

It was gone.

........

.....................

...............

OKAY TIME TO GO INSIDE.

"Yep, sure does." Seriff smiled, quickening their pace to the door. "Though I guess I could go for some violet magic right now... But that would ruin the taste of the sweet tea..." He frowned, before shrugging, "I'll just drink the sweet tea first and then have some magic afterwards."

Pup tugged Seriff towards the house faster, his smile brighter as Kit welcomed the two inside.

* * *

Gardening was nice....

His headache on the other hand, was not.

He rubbed his skull in hopes it would do something for the damn throbbing, but the light was just irritating it all over again. He missed Nightmares palace, at least when he wanted total darkness he didnt have to worry about someone kicking open his door and throwing open the blinds.

Nearby, Giant- the Papyrus of UnderPatch- and Blueberry- the Swap Sans who'd dragged him out here- were pulling weeds and discussing away the progress of various plants nearby them. They didn't use magic while doing so, but he couldn't tell whether it was out of pity for him or because it was something they normally did...

It was somewhat relaxing, to be honest, but the sun didn't exactly endear itself to him with its apparent teasing of his headache. At least it was blocked out by Giant when he approached, that was better... Oh, wait. Giant was saying something.

"-look alright, do you need to take a break? A substantial lack of magic can be draining until the body adapts."

Seriff shrugged, picking a few weeds from the patch he was working on, "S'nothin. I had a glass of magic, I'll be fine." Although he wished he had a pair of sunglasses, that might help slightly with the stabbing in his head.

Giant didnt seem very convinced, but it was obvious the young Sans wasnt as willing to share as he was when he was younger.

Which was saying much because he didnt share a lot even as a teen. The only reason they knew anything about him was because they found out by themselves. Geno screamed when he saw Seriff first taking a casual drink of pure determination magic.

It was best to just watch him from afar, and find out that way.

So, watch from afar they did, Giant keeping a relatively close eye on the Aussie and Blueberry keeping a closer one. They did their own things whilst doing so, of course; the latter pulling weeds and planting seeds nearby Seriff and the former using his advantageous height to trim the hedges without needing a stepstool.

* * *

Seriff rolled out of the way of an attack with a flawless dodge, giving a sigh at the other in front of him, "Edge, I already told ya trainin' wasn't a problem over at Nightmares. Can we stop this shit?"

"WE CAN STOP THIS SHIT WHEN YOU STOP LOOKING LIKE SHIT. HONESTLY, HAVE YOU TAKEN NO CARE OF YOURSELF AT ALL?"

The Fell Papyrus, fierce and relentless, sent more attacks the other's way with a watchful eye. He could tell something was wrong with Seriff, but if the Aussie wouldn't admit it, he'd just have to force him to display it...

"We're probably gonna be here for a while then," Seriff remarked dryly, gesturing down at his cracks and scars with a smirk. But it was half-hearted, and was more tired than it did cocky.

Everything _ached_ , he was so damn tired, and he was 90% sure he couldn't feel his hand.

 _'Or at least,"_ He thought with a flex of his gloved hand, _'what's left of it.'_

As the Aussie dodged another series of attacks, Edge scowled in his direction. "THE SCARS AREN'T WHAT MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE SHIT, DUMBASS. THOSE ARE THE REMNANTS OF BATTLE; BATTLES THAT YOU'VE WON. IT'S THE BLATANT DISREGARD FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH RIGHT NOW THAT'S MAKING YOU LOOK LIKE SHIT."

A more brutal attack was the punishment for responding that way, controlled with an iron will and aimed with pinpoint accuracy. "DODGE," the tall skeleton warned, his displeasure running strong as he fired.

Seriff let out a heavy breath, before dashing to the side. "Thanks Piccolo.... for that... _lovely_ commentary."

His vision was swimming, but not as much as his head. He leaned against the training room wall in order to gain some sort of balance....

Wait... when did the world go black?

The sounds around him were muffled, a quiet presence of white noise making itself known as his sense of the world shifted ever so slightly. He was on his back- had been on his back for some time now- and the feeling of something weighing down his limbs slowly increased as time went on.

A single voice broke through the white noise, "-IDIOT IS SICK, JUST AS I-" before the static overtook his mind once more in the form of garbled words and ideas sloshing about his skull. He was sick? How... uh... made sense.

Where was he?

He glanced around, but all he saw was black, black, and more black.

...Oh stars, he wasn't in the Void was he?

He tried to move, to do something, but his limbs were too sluggish. His head felt like it was made of cotton, and that damn white noise kept getting louder and louder much to his displeasure.

_"ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS..."_

It hissed at him, a constant stream that steadily grew louder and louder. But worse than that, was the way it slowly, _slowly_ sounded more and more familiar... the name of a person long forgotten rising up within his mind as the static hissed in his ears.

_"SSSSSSSSSSSS **SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSANS...** "_

...no. Not him. Anyone but him.

_**"Sans? What are you doing out of your room?"** _

NOT HIM...

* * *

_Sans grit his teeth, trying to summon magic only to have his hand burn. Glancing at it revealed why; a metal bracelet attached to his wrist. From a small distance, it looked like any other piece of jewelry, but he could see the intricate runes, the science carved into and under the silver metal. When did Gaster create this? When did he put it on him?_

_Damn, it hurt like hell trying to summon his magic. Bet the bastard meant for it to happen._

_ **"Get back in bed, girl. Papyrus wouldn't want you to be up and about at this hour."** _

_The tall scientist turned to walk away, assuming that Sans would go back to 'her' room, but being prepared in case of defiance. Stubbornness ran in the family, after all._

_How Dare He._

_**How Fucking Dare He.** _

"Don't you dare fucking speak of him as if you would know," _she breathed, backing away from him,_ "not after what you did."

_Pausing in his leave, Gaster turned to regard the younger skeleton with one yellow eyelight, the white one not visible at this angle._

_ **"I did what was necessary, Sans. You fail to understand because you are still attached... but worry not, that attachment will fade with time."** _

"Fade with time?" _Seriff laughed._ "You are just one sick son of a bitch... No." _She paused, her own purple and white eye lights looking up at him,_ "That would be insulting to Mom."

_The mismatched eyelights turning to her missing arm._ "How do you think she would react? Knowing that her _successful_ eldest son murdered  **his own little brother**?"

_A little smile appeared on his face- the bastard had the fucking gall to smile- as he thought back to their mother._

_ **"She would likely be upset. She was attached to us all, and it was only a matter of time before the strain became too much... It is fortunate that she died before she could witness anything worse than starvation."** _

"Upset? Upset is an understatement." _Sans glared, leaning against the wall of the lab. Asshole must have given 'her' some kind of drug. 'She' felt like 'she' could hardly move,_ "Gods, she would hate you. She never liked you as much as Dad did. He always talked about how proud he was of you, even when you stopped sending the gold we needed. He was sure something was just happening wherever you were; that you were just unable to send it."

_She looked away, trying to swallow the bile in her nonexistent throat as she thought of the pained looks of their parents as they imploded._ "He defended you 'till his last breath."

_For several moments following this statement, Gaster remained silent, a contemplative expression upon his face. There wasn't much he could do about the deaths of their parents and little brother, but maybe he could explain his reasoning to the other remaining member of their family... it wasn't like it could hurt, trying to reconcile with the girl. On the contrary, it could be advantageous- not enough to try more than once, but it would be nice for his primary subject to be on good terms with him._

_ **"Our family hasn't died in vain, Sans. My work is on the verge of breakthrough; the Barrier trapping us in this hellhole soon to be broken. Monsterkind will be free, Sans, free to once more roam the Surface. Have you any idea what we have lost? Any idea what we have forgotten? The longer we are down here, the more we lose."** _

"I have a better idea of what we have lost than you do apparently," _She replied, disgust evident in her eyes at the others 'reasoning.'_ "Much may have slipped through the hands of our kind, but that just makes what we have... what we had all that more special. Why don't you see that?" _Her eye sockets started give off blue wisps, a sign of deep sadness. "_ Why don't you see how much of what we had, you have thrown away?"

_Turning to face forward once more, the older skeleton glanced up at the pristine white ceiling, his gaze cast beyond it towards the Surface. His expression was that of... Resignation. Resolve. Determination._

_ **"I will pay for my sins someday. But, Monsterkind will be closer to freedom by the time that happens; everything I have done and will do in the future beings us closer to the Surface every day. When I Fall from my perch, you will see the results of my work, and you will understand how what I have done has made the Underground a more bearable place."** _

_...self-righteous bastard._

"...And the others say that all monsters are made of nothing but virtue." _The younger staggered away from the wall, turning on her heel to leave._ "Guess we're both proof that's bullshit."

_After that, everything went black for Sans, darkness consuming his vision once more._

* * *

With the return of darkness came the return of white noise, hissing in his nonexistent ears once more. But this time it was relaxing, calming, comforting; fraught with warmth wrapping around his cold, cold bones. He heard a whispered voice tell him, "I'm sorry," before the white noise faded and the darkness segued into light.

* * *

_Sans was lying down, in 'her' room back in the lab. The clean ceiling was irritatingly bright, causing her to turn her gaze down and to the side-_

_Oh. Gaster was there, in a chair seated beside her. It was time for her intelligence test, and then she could leave the lab for a small while as a reward for good behavior. All she had to do was answer the questions he had; then the straps would be undone, and she'd be free to leave._

_ **"The series of following questions are being asked to ascertain your awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Answer as accurately as possible within the few seconds given to you."** _

_The older skeleton adjusted the papers in his hands, picking up a pen to take down the responses given to him. **"Question number one. What is your full name, age, and gender?"**_

"That's technically three questions rolled into one," _Sans pointed out from her place on the bed, tugging the restraint on her arm,_ "Full name is Sans Tahoma Seriff. M'27 years old..." _She trailed off, going quiet at the last part._

_She looked away from her restraint to notice Gaster's reprimanding look, and gave a sigh,_ "Fine, fuck you. I'm physically- " _note that word, motherfucker-_ "of the female gender."

_He made a few marks on his papers, likely taking notation of the undesirable language from Seriff, before moving on to the next question._

_ **"Question number two. Who are your family members?"** _

"Which do you want, the ones alive or the ones dead?" _Sans remarked dryly, but shifted so she could answer,_ "Cardinal Seriff and Mael Seriff, birth parents. Papyrus..." _Her eye sockets went empty for a moment, before her eye lights returned._ "...Frisk, Asriel, Toriel and Asgore Dreemurr as adoptive family." _She tapped her phalanges thoughtfully against the bed._ "Well, there's also Nightmare, I suppose. He tells a lot of dad jokes and does a bunch of embarrassing dad stuff, so he might as well be my dad... Tell him though, and I will kill you."

_ **"Forgetting anyone?"** _

"No one important, no." _She smiled innocently, satisfied with her answer._

_You can restrain her body, you could restrain her soul._

_But you can't restrain that stars damned sass._

_It was with a flat expression that the scientist took down the answer, and moved on to the next question. That jab got him good. Or it just annoyed him. Either way, his subject seemed pleased with herself._

_ **"Question number three. Who are the friends you would trust most with your secrets?"** _

"Let's see... One, Two.. None!" _She smiled._ "Well, 'cept maybe Error? Dude seems to understand a bunch of shit. Makes sense for a guy who's gone through a lotta shit."

_ **"Question number four. Why did you leave the mansion of skeletons on the Surface of the Undertale universe?"** _

_The sassy attitude and cocky smirk was wiped away the moment he finished his question, her eye lights disappearing once more to leave nothing but a void in her sockets. After two minutes of absolute silence, a deeper, more demonic voice spoke from her mouth,_ " **B a l a n c e I s K e y** "

_Her eyelights flickered back on as a series of violent coughs left her. A nearly silent whine leaving her as she curled up. Well, curled up as best as one could when restrained._

_She wasn't feeling very good anymore._

_The scientist hummed and placed a bony hand on the younger's ribcage, a few soothing pulses of healing magic coming forth to ease the illness affecting her magic. It was out of the ordinary for Gaster- if she was sick, normally the older skeleton would either let it be or heal her completely, not keep her in some half-state._

_...something wasn't right._

_ **"Question number five. Where are you right now? Describe your surroundings."** _

_Sans frowned, looking at the other with suspicion. Something wasn't right, but she couldn't quite place it._

_...and she didn't like it._

"...True lab bedroom..."

_ **"Further detail, please."** _

"White, white, and more white," _Sans rolled her eyes,_ "and a bed. Whoop dee doo."

_The scientist took this down and tilted his head slightly, setting down his pen when he was done. It was at this point that Gaster looked closer at Sans, his white eyelight fading in and out as his yellow one expanded slightly. However, he continued on to ask more questions, despite this irregularity._

_ **"Question number six. Why and how did your brother die?"** _

_Sans couldn't breathe._

_~~Little Papy crying while his brother desperately clawed his way toward him. Both reaching for one another while a blaster pointed their way-~~ _

"No more questions," _he whispered._

_ "Sans-" _

_He screamed before he could finish, his restraints tightening as he pulled against them,_ " **No more questions!** "

_Panic set in, his breathing getting weird as he tried to pull against the restraints. Everything was blurry, his head hurt._

_But gods he would take off his other arm if it meant getting away from him, away from this place._

_**He would rather die.** _

The visage of Gaster began to crumble, flaking away into ashes and dust. His skull was the first to go, followed by his shoulders and torso and arms and legs, leaving behind a white lab coat and flickers of black leather. "it's your fault," a voice whispered, not directed towards him but being heard all the same, as the room shook and crumbled.

Seriff couldn't breathe; he couldn't think; he couldn't move. Was this what dying felt like? Would he finally meet his end?

No, no he wouldn't. Stubborn green light covered his sockets, two gloved hands of red and blue settled over his skull and flooding him with warmth. "YOU'RE DELUSIONAL, SERIFF," a new voice told him, red and filled with concern and repressed anger. Why was it angry? Was it angry at him? It was true that he deserved it.

"SERIFF, RELAX. IT'S OKAY. YOU'RE WITH US. JUST BREATHE... IN, AND OUT." Calm. Collected. Angry. Blue. He... couldn't trust it. He couldn't trust _them_. Not anymore.

"IN... AND OUT."

Not after what he'd done.

Sans coughed, struggling to breathe. His body shuddered violently, tugging more on his restraints. He didn't deserve _comfort_. He didn't deserve _trust_.

The only thing he deserved was a blast to the soul.

A dim light broke forth, gasps and whispers heard amidst the violent pulsing of magic in his nonexistent ears.

"his soul," one muttered.

"THE POOR THING," another added.

Floating before the restrained skeleton's sternum was a soul in the shape of an upside-down heart; the colors of the seven vices swirling about within its depths. Not the virtues, no- but the vices. Seriff was filled with Spite, with Audacity and Vengeance, with Compliance and Idleness, with Conceit and Inflexibility. His soul had not the bright colors of the others around him, but the dim colors of those lost to darkness.

~~No wonder he betrayed them.~~

But, even more alarming than the vices that made up his soul, were the numerous cracks within it. These cracks ran both deep and shallow, but were sealed with the black substance known as Nightmare's; evidence of his near-death state at the end of their battle and the efforts that the evil skeleton had gone to in order to keep him alive. In fact, it was only Nightmare's magic that was keeping Seriff's soul together- it quivered and shook with nothing more or less than the desire to finally _die_.

The skeletons around him shared a horrified look, as his soul wordlessly begged to be destroyed.

Once in a while, the soul could be seen trying to pull itself apart, only for the black cement-like substance to pull it back together.

The sounds of someone in the back puking into a bucket could be heard throughout the room.

Seriff shuddered, trying again to yank violently against the bounds that kept him down.

_**It's all his fault. He should have done more. He should have never accepted the offer given by Gaster. He should have left before they got attached. He should have died along with Papyrus on that day.** _

"SERIFF!" The voice of Papyrus, loud and clear, broke through the magic screaming in his nonexistent ears. To the protests of many, his restraints were undone, and the panicked skeleton was pulled into a warm, firm hug. "SERIFF, YOU'RE NOT THERE. HE CAN'T HURT YOU. NOT ANYMORE."

The Aussie struggled, his soul beating erratically as he tried to... Fight? Flee? What he wanted in this moment, he didn't know, but the warm pressure around him was slowly beginning to bring him back to reality. He just... didn't believe.

"It'll neva get any better," he whispered, his soul straining once more against the darkness that dared hold it together. " _You'll neva see 'm again._ "

"NO, SERIFF. YOU WON'T SEE HIM AGAIN, NOT _YOUR_ PAPYRUS, BUT IT WILL GET BETTER! YOU HAVE US- WE'LL TAKE CARE OF YOU, BETTER THAN WE DID BEFORE."

Seriff, a quiet whine escaping his throat, slowed in his resistance. His head was spinning, energy waning- he was too sick to fight back effectively. The green magic still being poured into his body was doing little to help. "Jus' give up... I did."

"NO!" The refusal, stark and simple, shocked the Aussie into stillness. "I REFUSE TO GIVE UP, SERIFF. NOT WHEN YOU'RE IN THIS MUCH PAIN, NOT WHEN YOU CAN'T FIND THE WILL TO BELIEVE THAT YOU DESERVE HAPPINESS!"

"But I don't-"

"YES! YOU DO!" Drawing back, Papyrus fixed a stern gaze upon Seriff, and the Aussie felt a lot younger than his twenty-seven years. "IF YOU CAN'T BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, THEN BELIEVE IN ME. I'M THE GREAT PAPYRUS! AND I BELIEVE IN YOU!"

Seriff went slack in the other's arms, the fight inside gone and replaced with weak shivering. His addled mind swam in murky water as he tried to comprehend _why_.

He would think about it later. For now, he was so tired. So very tired. He closed his eyes, the others whispers and questions ignored for the comfort given to him. Everything faded away after that, replaced with the sweet sweet oblivion that was unconsciousness.


	10. Everything's Bettah, Down Where It's Wettah-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Take it from meeeee!

....Okay.

So it was everyone else that was being weird for the past few days. 

Aight.

At first, Seriff thought it was him. After all, according to Papyrus and Edge, he had been out of it for a few weeks. Made sense as sickness for a skeleton monster was never a good thing... but then everyone just went weird. G was a shining example; after all, it's not often you open the door to your room only for the guy across from you to suddenly slam his own like he just finished arguing with his boyfriend and decided to take it out on the house they both lived in. 

But when he walked down the stairs into the living room where Razz, Syrup, and Geno were, the three immediately stopped whatever conversation they had. Geno looked like he was going to be sick, and Syrup wasn't looking him in the eyes. When he came back from the kitchen, they were gone. 

So yah. Weird day so far.

Taking the time of being alone to an advantage, he logged onto Facebook messenger on his phone. 

Several missed messages. 10 missed calls. All from Nightmare.

F U C K.

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Oz

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Oz

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Hey Oz

 **Your Best Dadmare:** ...

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Where are you?

_[ 1 Missed Call from **Your Best Dadmare** ]_

**Your Best Dadmare:** Oz, you better not be ignoring me.

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Hey

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Oz

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Hey

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Y u ignore me?

_[ 2 Missed Calls from **Your Best Dadmare** ]_

**Your Best Dadmare:** You better fucking pick up the phone.

_[ 3 Missed Calls from **Your Best Dadmare** ]_

_[ 4 Missed Calls from **Your Best Dadmare** ]_

**Your Best Dadmare:** Oz, if you don't answer the next call, I will spam you with the sock dream.

 **Your Best Dadmare:** It will be spammed. Don't think it won't.

_[ 5 Missed Calls from **Your Best Dadmare** ]_

**Your Best Dadmare:**

**Your Best Dadmare:** The sock dream isn't getting through.

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Where are you?

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Seriff

 **Your Best Dadmare:** Seriff I swear to Ditty

_[ 6 Missed Calls from **Your Best Dadmare** ]_

**Your Best Dadmare:** Oz

_[ **Your Best Dadmare** has changed their name to **Your Angry Dadmare** ]_

**Your Angry Dadmare:** Fucking seriously are you okay?

 **Your Angry Dadmare:** Are you dead?

_[ 7 Missed Calls from **Your Angry Dadmare** ]_

_[ 8 Missed Calls from **Your Angry Dadmare** ]_

**Your Angry Dadmare:** SANS TAHOMA SERIFF-DREEMURR

 **Your Angry Dadmare:** ANSWER THE DAMN PHONE

_[ 9 Missed Calls from **Your Angry Dadmare** ]_

**Your Angry Dadmare:** I'm gonna kill you

 **Your Angry Dadmare:** Seriff

 **Your Angry Dadmare:** I'm gonna kill your family

 **Your Angry Dadmare:** ...

 **Your Angry Dadmare:** ...

 **Your Angry Dadmare:** ...

_[ **Your Angry Dadmare** has changed their name to **Your Concerned Dadmare** ]_

**Your Concerned Dadmare:** Hey

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** If you don't answer this call I'm sending someone to check up on you

_[ 10 Missed Calls from **Your Concerned Dadmare** ]_

**Your Concerned Dadmare:** Axe and Cross are on their way to the Mansion to avenge you

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** Killer and Dusty wanted to go too but I kept them back in case you're alive

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** Better fucking pray you're alive, kid

_[ **Salty Son** has changed his name to **Holy Fuck Dad** ]_

**Holy Fuck Dad:** Shit- Ffs Nightmare I was Sick.

 **Holy Fuck Dad:** Trust me I would have answered otherwise.

 **Holy Fuck Dad:** Im sorry holy shit.

A slam was heard from his left, and he could only sigh as a familiar voice echoed through the mansion.

**"where the fuck is oz, you weak-kneed bitches?!"**

D O U B L E F U C K.

The window behind Seriff suddenly shattered, a bone attack flying past him into the wall, before Cross suddenly tackled the Aussie around the waist. "Target secured!" he yelled into the depths of the mansion for Axe to hear, a smile clearly audible within his voice.

The call was quick to be returned. "location!?"

"Not in this house!" With that, the skeleton clad in black and white clothes carried Seriff out the window, snickering with amusement the entire time.

....

.....

Keep a straight face Seriff-

Keep a straight face-

Nope. Can't do it.

He wanted to be mad. Stars he wanted to be mad and annoyed but godsdammit "Why hello mineral friend." A grin broke out on his face as he turned his head to look at Cross, "How you doin~?"

"Doing better now that I know you're alive. Why haven't you been chatting us up lately? We get too boring for you?" Cross continued absconding with the Aussie in hand, shouts breaking out in the manor behind the two as Axe broke the front door- _again_ \- to follow.

"Do we gotta go egg the doodle sphere again?"

"Nah, doing the same shtick twice is boring...." He gave a wide shit-eating grin to the other. "Next time let's just graffitti dicks all over it."

He put his phone into the inner pocket of his jacket once more, "As for your concerns, I've been sick for the past few weeks. Just got better a few days ago." He casually waved to the bigger skeleton, as if being dragged around by Cross and having a crowd following after them was normal.... which it was. "Hey Axe. How's ya brother? He been good since I last saw em?"

"he's been good. also been wondering when you're gonna come visit again, keeps askin' me to bring ya around, yadda yadda yadda." The casual way this was said did nothing to disguise his approval of the thought- Axe had a bit of a thing about keeping those close to him in his territory. As he saw Seriff as a little brother of sorts to him, he liked it when the Aussie was around his house. It appealed to his instincts.

"Tell him I said hi." Seriff grinned. He liked heading over to Horrortale when he could. His usually busy schedule working for Nightmare and keeping some what of a job (Is being Royalty considered a job?) in his own universe left him little time. But he loved every second of it. Horrortale Papyrus was just the sweetest thing to ever grace the planet. 

Maybe a trip to Horrortale was in the works.

After Cross did whatever he was planning, of course. The look on his skull said that he had an idea or two of what they could do while on this joyride. "Oz, pick a number from one to ten."

He rolled his eyes at Cross, "Oh jeez. Okay uh... seven. Seven is a good number. The question is why am I picking a number?"

"For this!" The smaller skeleton smashed into the garage at the base of the mansion, before running to a sleek black Mercedes-Benz and tossing the Aussie into the passenger seat. Then, he grabbed a spare key from the wall as Axe tore off the garage door, and returned to the driver's seat as the bigger skeleton climbed into the backseat of the Mercedes.

Without waiting, Cross proceeded to floor it out of the hole Axe had made, smirking at the shocked faces of the manor skeletons that could be seen through the tinted windows. "I think this is Giant's car. Good sense of karma right there, as we know he was the only one who helped Sci create that suppressor of yours."

Oz started laughing, shaking his head at his friend and grinning. "Holy shit Cross, man I can only imagine if we had taken Edge's car."

He adjusted the front seat so he had more leg room, before plopping back and giving out a sigh, "Ugh I'm glad I'm outta there, even if it's just for a little while. Can we get some Burgers? I've been dying for some fries."

Cross nodded, doing a sick drift around a corner to head towards the nearest town. "Grillby's, coming right up. Also, here."

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a metallic clip of some sort with tiny runes and magic sigils engraved into the underside, holding it out to the Aussie. "This should disrupt that bracelet suppressor of yours for a few minutes at a time. It has a shit recharge rate though, so use it sparingly. We got it when Arista took us to a Slavetale rebellion timeline last week."

...why she didn't just give it directly to Seriff, nobody knew.

"Anyways, do you have any other places you want to go after Grillby's? I plan on wrecking this car at the end of the day, and leaving you in it to take the blame."

"How dare you blame me for the wreckage of this car! ....I saw this really nice dirt field near a cliff though. I saw we take it there and just start doin Donuts. Maybe do some muddin' and get it stuck. It's been raining a lot so the dirt round there might have some mud pits." Seriff scratched his nasal bone as he looked out the window. "It's surrounded by a buncha tree n' everythin' on the other side of town. S'great."

"Sounds great to me." With that, the three skeletons set off to seize the day.

* * *

Several hours had passed. The skeletons back at the mansion had mostly given up on searching for Seriff; only Papyrus, Raspberry, and Edge still roaming out and about the town. When the front door opened- having been fixed, courtesy of a visiting Dancetale Sans- those within expected a report of failure from one of the searching skeletons, but silence met their nonexistent ears...

...and then the sound of dripping water.

"SUP SLUTS, GUESS WHO JUST GOT OUT OF PRISON?!"

Nagisa?!

Nope, it was Seriff. 

"Well I guess technically I'm going _back_ to prison so-" He never got to finish, as he was immediately tackled by a particular Blueberry. The others in the vicinity were quick to join them in flooding the area. 

Heh. _Flooding._ Puns.

Hah. 

"SERIFF! YOU'RE OKAY!!"

"and not dead!"

"AND....WET?" Blueberry pulled back in confusion when noticing the sopping wet state of the taller Skeleton. Taking in the others form, the wet clothes weren't the only thing he noticed. There was a smudge of mud on one cheek, and on the other was- was that lipstick on his mouth and cheek? What?

Just what had happened while he was gone? They'd thought he was a goner after Cross and Axe had shown up- that Nightmare had discovered he'd been captured and had sent them to kill him off maybe- but he's here? And fine? And wetter than a lady from UnderLust?

Wait... if Seriff was okay...

"Apologies for the interruption, but do you happen to know where my car is?"

_...there it is._ Hello, Giant.

" _Aha_.... Okay..... So funny story..." Seriff scratched at his nasal bone, looking off to the side.  "So the thing is after Cross and Axe bailed me out we went to Grillby's. Which was chill, ya know, got some to-go bags and stuff. Had a nice lunch there. So afterwards we went to the other side of town to this... uh... It was a- it was like a dirt field? Of some sort? Anyways. We had some fun with that. Pretty durable car for a uh, Mercedes. Went muddin', did some drifting. Horrible traction by the way."

He got up from his place on the ground, pulling his jacket off and hanging it on the coat hanger. His plaid shirt was next to go, leaving nothing but his tank top and necklaces on. "So Cross- Cross was the one driving by the way I just wanted to let you know so you can't blame me- Uh, well. He decided to go for a nice, long drive.... off a really short cliff."  


"You threw my car off a cliff?!"

Seriff frowned. "Noooo, Cross did!" He then kicked his shoes off next to the door. "Besides. An ocean broke our fall. It floated for a really long time! It was quite impressive. But then uh... someone decided to open a door- it was Axe by the way. Still can't blame me. So it sank."

Sensing the gradual removal of clothing, Lust Sans made his appearance, and wolf-whistled at Seriff from the staircase. "woooooo, take it off!"

Behind the dirty-minded skeleton, a purple spectral hand appeared, and smacked the back of his skull. He pouted as a result, and started looking at the Gaster-type skeletons present who could do that sort of magic, but failed to find the culprit. 

Said culprit merely sat on the armrest of the couch, enjoying some whipped cream as she listened to the conversation of Seriff and the others. "Due to your drenched state, I suspect there is more to this story. Do go on."

"Well, it sank, we sank. So we just sat there for a little while. Its still in good condition, just flooded." Seriff shrugged. 

"So... we can get it back?"

Seriff replied with the noise of breathing through his teeth. "Mmmmmmm..... No. No you cant."

"BUT YOU JUST SAID IT WAS STILL IN GOOD CONDITION!" Raspberry scowled. 

"Yah, the car dumbass. The area the car landed? Not so good. Mermaid territory." He peeled the last layer on his torso off, flinging it to Lust Sans playfully. 

"wooooooo!" The vest-clad skeleton caught the shirt with his face and ran upstairs, dodging another spectral hand along the way before zipping off outta sight.

Seriff seemed to ignore how some paled at seeing that some of his ribs were missing. That, or he just didn't care. "And I'm not talkin that Disney bullshit with the pretty giggly girls with shells in their hair and clam bras. I'm talkin Pirates of the Caribbean kinda mermaids. Sexy man-eaters (literally) who'll gut you if ya even look at em wrong." His necklaces jingled quietly against his sternum as he moved towards the kitchen. "Ya we met one. She was really cool."

Giant watched this with a rather contemplative expression, his gaze settling on Seriff's many missing ribs without any further reaction. It was several moments after this that he took in a few other details about the Aussie- one of which being the missing glove on his hand. 

"A Mermaid, you say? I've heard they can be quite territorial, usually demanding a trinket or two to please them before they let you go. Your metaphorically silver tongue is what allowed you to escape unscathed, I presume?"

Seriff grabbed a drink from the fridge, sighing as he returned back to the living room and plopped into his favorite chair. "Yah. Sorta. She was actually pretty chill for a Mermaid. All she wanted was the car, my glove for some reason, and my number."

He took a swig of his drink. "She liked Cross and Axe too, so that was a plus one in my book. Dunno if I would actually date her though."

Flush, having sauntered downstairs with some dry clothes for Seriff at the arrival of his brother upstairs, smirked at the others. "Now here's a Sans that can get some tail other than alternate versions of himself, me, Gaster, and Grillby. Nice, my guy, nice." His voice was quieter than most Papyruses, as it was deliberately lowered for its husky quality. Bitches loved husky voices whispering them sweet nothings.

As [-999999999] indicators appeared above the skills of the lazier skeletons, a series of quiet golf clapping could be heard from Arista, followed by the whoosh of her whipped cream can. "Not to mention the Creators that ship themselves with us, and those odd, featureless beings called 'Readers' in several universes. Now we must simply wait and see if he will end up with the Mermaid or not."

Seriff silently thanked Flush for the clothes, throwing them without care that he was in front of the others. 

"I already told ya that I don't think I would actually get up with her. Date a Mermaid and you're practically married to all of em. Besides they're a little too picky for my taste."

"Thoughts and actions are two different things, my dear. Time will tell the path you choose... or the path chosen for you." At Arista's words, several of the lazier skeletons gained uncomfortable expressions, not exactly sure of how they feel about her and Ink's beliefs of the Creators. Honestly, the two were Void and Anti-Void dwellers respectively- it's pretty much guaranteed that they're crazy in some fashion.

"who the fuck invited you here?" Red grumbled nearby, flipping the bird to any metaphorical Creators that might be planning on screwing with his timelines.

"My Creator did. And so did I. Would you like some whipped cream?"

"fuckin' sure they did. and fuck off with that fluffy sweet shit."

"This is why people are obsessed with you, Red dear."

...so much leaning on the fourth wall. It's bound to tip over at this rate. Seriff threw a pillow at the female skeleton to avoid such a thing. "Arista for fucks sake, stop leaning before ya break somethin'."

...........

"....That somethin s'called Reality. Seriously. Stop. I get enough bullshit from the creators."

"Alright, I suppose I can ease up on the religion. I must check upon my niece anyways." With that, the shortest skeleton casually tossed her whipped cream can into the Void and stood up to leave. She was, however, stopped by a quick tug on her cloak, and turned to face a skeptical Honey.

"you don't have a niece."

Ah, true. Not from her universe. "Yet. There will be one in an alternate timeline soon, if my awareness of the current time is correct. This is one that takes place shortly after the Nightmare's Ally Sielutale Sans was captured by you lot, yes?"

A simple nod answered that question, and the female skeleton smiled. "Excellent. I shall see you later, then. Or earlier. Time is completely relative." Satisfied, Arista made her leave, diving out the window and teleporting away like any normal person would.

.............

"...so, uh, about giant's car." Honey was wise to change the topic, as the front door slammed open and shut. "why did the mermaid even want it? there aren't roads in the ocean."

"Boy you apparently know nothin' of Mermaids," Seriff laughed. "If they want something, then who fuckin' cares if it makes sense? You give it to 'em."

Another swig of his drink, "Besides, you don't need a road to drive. Just a few well placed runes and a little know how. And damn, did she know how."

"but seriously, what makes mermaids so dangerous? don't they just like..." Red made an odd hand motion, like a fish swimming up and down. "...sorta frolick in the waves or some bullshit like that? what do mermaids even do?"

Giant merely appeared put-out about the loss off his car, a quiet sort of disgruntled attitude distinguishable as he sauntered off to get some coffee.

Seriff stared at Red for a long time. After 5 minutes of unnerving silence from the taller Sans. He finally blinked once, then twice before speaking in a voice surprisingly clear of his usual Australian accent, "What part of my earlier statement that these women are more of a 'Pirates of The Caribbean sexy man eater that will gut you if you even look at them wrong' did you not get?"

Getting up from his seat, he pulled out his phone and started to press a few buttons. "These girls are ruthless to those who dare show them disrespect and always, _always_ travel in packs. If there's one, there's more somewhere all a'round ya. They may look lovely, but they can shred a human limb from limb in seconds. They have these long strands of seaweed as a form of lasso to pull sailors off ships or cliffs out of reach."

He put his phones back and shook his head, "I'm tellin' ya man, lovely as they look, Mermaids got some serious fire power. _Never_ fuck with a Mermaid, unless you want to fuck with them all."

Red shrugged, accepting the information in a way that didn't fully admit he was wrong. But that was about as good as it'd get from him, so at least he acknowledged it in some manner. 

"eh, the pirates of the caribbean series is human shit. we all know how accurate humans are-" he rolled his eyelights and pointed to the Monsters Inc. DVD nearby- "but if ya say so, i guess they got _somethin'_ right for once."

"Oh yes. Compare all human knowledge to a _Children's Movie_ made _10 years_ before we appeared on the surface. Great deduction there Sherlock." Seriff remarked dryly. "It's not like, oh, I don't know. Each human is different and has different information that they know better than one another because of Hobbies. No. Please. Continue on comparing humans to their past selves and/or ancestors. That will never cause any harm or depletion of possible growth. Totally."

"hey, wait a minute-" Sans tried to cut off the return argument he just _knew_ Red was gonna come forward with, but it was a failed attempt.

"excuse you, but mermaids are immortals, right? they weren't sealed underground with us monsters. humans had every fuckin' chance to get the facts straight on 'em, and excuse me if i thought they failed like they did with vampires and witches and mages."

"Ya know, just because they were on the Surface and we werent, doesn't mean they want to be found smart one. Immortals are reclusive, and do anything they can to hide their influence on the world away from humans. Mermaids are no different. Every chance you say? Anything times zero is still zero, fuckface. Humans have little right on Immortals because that's how Immortals want it." He raised a brow, "Besides, you have little room to talk considering not but ten minutes ago you thought Mermaids were ditzy giggly babes who just frolic around like a bunch of fucking idiots."

He then sighed, and made a dismissive motion with his hand like he was waving smoke away from his face. "Ah, why I am even wasting my breath. You guys barely even remember the runes our ancestors made to make life easier, or the knowledge they kept stored in books that you have gathering dust bunnies on a shelf upstairs. What made me think _Red_ of all people keep an open mind and actually think outside his tiny little box? Silly me."

"first of all," oh stars, Red was going for it, "i take offense to that. my mind is a lot more open than you or anyone here thinks, but noooo, go ahead and assume i'm a narrow-minded twit just cuz i act rude and shit. of course it doesn't even cross your mind that how people act and how people think are two separate things."

Shit.

"second of all, why the fuck do ya think i asked this shit in the first place? ain't nobody learnin' shit if questions aren't asked. pardon me if the way i did so didn't stand up to your _ever-so-high_ standards."

The Fell Sans stood up, a sneer making his sharp grin just slightly sharper. "questions need to be asked for shit to be learned, dumbass. obviously school didn't do a good job of teachin' ya that, so why don't ya let me know when you finish kindergarten?" 

With that, Red teleported off elsewhere in the mansion, likely to prevent himself from going overboard and destroying something. Anger management classes hadn't really helped him, sadly.

Seriff went quiet, and for a moment, everyone assumed that he was starting to regret what he had said. But then-

"Mission complete! 'Make Red Angry' a success." A feral grin grace his skull, before he snapped his fingers. "Man, kinda makes me wanna see who I can piss off next." He laughed, before finishing off his drink finally. "Wait, where's Syrup?"

"ELSEWHERE, OBVIOUSLY. HE LEFT WHEN YOU MENTIONED THE BOOKS COLLECTING DUST IN THE LIBRARY. PROBABLY WANTED TO..." 

Oh no. Edge had paused. He had paused in the About To Make A Pun™ way. 

"... _DUST OFF_ HIS KNOWLEDGE."

The pun wasn't received very well.

Wait, when had he even gotten back?

"....I think you need to dust off some joke books and brush up on your pun skills Edge." Seriff raised a brow before checking his jacket pocket, "Now where did I put that extra glove..." He didn't like how the hole in his hand was showing... and it was harder to hold things when you had one.

G had been the first to catch sight of the hole in Seriff's hand, back while the Aussie was sick and he was cleaning him off out of guilt, but the Sans of UnderPatch wasn't present. Therefore, it was up to someone else to point that little-known fact out to the others.

That someone else was Papyrus, who had returned around the same time as Edge. "SERIFF, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND? IT HAS A HOLE LIKE GIANT'S HANDS AND G'S HANDS!"

...the Sanses in the room all paused in their conversations- even Blueberry and Raspberry- and slowly turned to look at Seriff's hand.

...Yah, that was another reason why he had wanted the glove: Questions. 

"Welp, seems to be a family tradition to have no palms after a science accident," Seriff replied sarcastically, "Dad was at the wrong place at the wrong time, Gaster was a fucking bastard, and I just so happened to find out that you should never mix to particular things together at the same time."

"why was gaster a bastard?" Wow Honey, straight for the throat.

"AND WHAT TWO THINGS SHOULD NOT BE MIXED?" Okay, that was an easier question to answer. Thank you for not being as much of a douche as your brother, Blueberry.

"None ya fuckin' business," Seriff shot back at Honey, before turning to Blueberry. "As for your question, a vial of Immortal Soul Magic and my own Soul Magic got knocked over while I was working."

The skeletons familiar with magic-involved chemistry winced sympathetically, imagining the explosion that could've resulted from such a thing. Gaster wasn't mentioned again, most of them being happy to pass on the subject with some measure of guilt as to their actions not long ago, others sending disapproving glances at the former group.

Ah. Here was the main reason why he'd been happy about being abducted- _the weird behavior_.

Seriff quietly watched the others interact, seeing winces of sympathy and guilt. He narrowed his sockets for a moment, before turning his back to them and checking his pockets, "Anyways, it's easier to have a glove on so that way things don't go through the hole in my palm when I go to pick something up." Or pickpocket a wallet.

Nearby, a passing Papyrus clad in oddly matched clothing called out, "Have you thought of using the hole in your hand as a slingshot? Just wrap a rubber band around your palm, and Nyeh! Instant object launcher!"

"Already ahead of you on that dude." ~~He couldn't look at him without the urge to throw him into Seriff's closet and get rid of that atrocious clash.~~ He looked down at the hole in his hand,  "The hole is like a targeting system. One time, I threw a jar of light fluid into someone's house and set it on fire."

Looking up and seeing the horrified look, he raised a bone brow. "What? It was abandoned... Well, by abandoned, I mean the people were on vacation."

"...was that vacation paid for by you?"

Ah. Sans-language for 'did you kill them?' Nice to know they were taking him somewhat seriously; a bit of a shame it had taken him going 'evil' for them to do so.

"No, I did not... Mom did." He shrugged. "She gave me 300 bucks for setting the house on fire. Well, I set it on fire after we ransacked it. Frisk and Azzy had fun with that. Meraki visited and showed Azzy how to pick locks while I showed Frisk. They're fast learners. Dunno when Meraki got there, but she appeared right on time."

Honey paused, held up a finger, and lowered it. Right. She's that dragon friend of Seriff's, the one that had him coming home smelling like questionable substances and bad decisions back when he was a teenager. 

Edge's car reeked for weeks after that.

"SO MERAKI IS IN YOUR HOME UNIVERSE RIGHT NOW, CORRECT?" It seemed that the Fell Papyrus remembered this, and wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be a repeat event.

"I make no promises for an Immortal Dragon with more power than necessarily needed," Seriff's said solemnly.

That... usually wasn't good.

As the capabilities of an overpowered dragon were contemplated, Giant returned from the kitchen, his coffee in hand, and fixed his eyelights on Seriff. Those present abruptly remembered that Seriff had irked the scientist by losing his car, and slowly edged away from the normally pacifistic skeleton.

"So... you _are_ going to be paying for my car, yes?"

"Why the fuck should I pay for it? I wasn't the one who crashed it _or_ sank it." Seriff scoffed.  "That was Cross and Axe. Cross was the one who crashed it, Axe was the one who sank it. Aaand the Mermaid was the one who stole it."

"DID SOMEBODY SAY, ACCOUNTABILITY?" Meraki smashed through the window, a skeleton in a chokehold with each arm.

Seriff had to smirk at the sight of the distressed skeletons in the Dragon Immortal's hold, noting the way that Cross had gone limp with acceptance and Axe was still struggling with denial. "Oh, hey Axe, hey Cross. Fancy seein' you here. How've ya been for the past, what, thirty or so minutes? I see your clothes are still wet."

"We tried to run from our sins, but Meraki found us anyways. She just came outta nowhere and swooped us up; started saying how we were lucky that the Mermaid had been expecting her and didn't want to get the water dusty. Dunno why she brought us here though." Cross was the one that answered, in a monotone voice that matched his sense of style.

"YEP! And honestly, I _wouldn't_ have brought them here, but I was summoned."

Everyone gave the dragoness odd looks, and Giant approached with a curious gleam in his eyelights. "How were you summoned, if I may ask, with such a knowledge of what was needed?" Cross and Axe appeared uncomfortable under the scientist's gaze.

"Do you really wanna know?" She cast an amused glance towards Seriff, indicating that he should provide the answer. "Are you sure that you really wanna know?"

"Yes, I am certain."

Seriff responded to her look by giving a firm nod, before saying in a serious voice, "Are you certain about that? I promise you, you won't like the answer."

After getting a few unsure looks and giving some himself, Giant nodded.

Seriff looked him straight in the eyes, leaned in, and whispered, " _Weird. Magic. Shit._ "

The Chaos afterwards was Beautiful.


	11. We're No Strangers To Love...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know the rules, and so do I!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shadow: ..Put ya hands in the air (the air)

There was a lovely sight that met the eyes of a certain honey-loving skeleton the next morning.

Three skeletons and one dragoness, sitting around the coffee table in the living room with mugs of hot cocoa in front of them, playing cards.

"...so you can make food for _them_ , but not for us?"

Someone was salty.

"Okay, seriously, why would I make anything for you guys?" Seriff sighed, putting his cards down long enough to pinch his nasal bridge. Any attempt to look at the cards was only met with disappointment when it turned out he had them flipped so no one could see. "All you've done is force me here against my will, put this bracelet on me so I'm unable to use my magic, and make me gods damned uncomfortable."

"mhm... just consider this karma for murder. i'm sure the people you've killed working for nightmare would appreciate it."

_WHOA_. Not exactly an unfounded belief, but _dude_. That's harsh.

"...." Seriff threw a hand up. "This is why I don't make you people anything anymore."

"it's not like he's completely wrong," Axe grunted, his eye light scanning over his cards. 

Nearby, Cross glared at the Swap Papyrus. "But he's not completely right either,"

" _Thank you_ Cross. This is why I make you stuff," Seriff gestured, before leaning back in his spot.  "I've never killed any innocent people, carrot top. It's best the ones I've killed are gone." He picked his cup of cocoa up. "They'd probably cause more problems for you then they would have us."

Humming in a thoughtful manner, Meraki took a sip of her own cocoa, and eventually shrugged. "Honestly, if ya wanna worry about someone killing innocents, you should turn your attention towards me. I'm a dragon. I kill without discrimination towards whomever tries to steal from me. Pretty much the only people who get away with trying is children."

Honey sent her a horrified glance, and the dragoness took another sip of her drink, slightly amused. 

"Hey, children get a pass for not knowing any better. But young adults and older _do_ know better, and if they wanted something to save their family from poverty or something, they could've just _asked_. Does anybody ever think of that?" She solemnly shook her head, the amusement still audible within her voice. "Nope. But hey, a dragon's gotta eat. Thieves often have sin tainting their souls, but that doesn't detract much from the overall flavor."

"an' you call us evil," Axe muttered.  "cross. three."

"Go fish."

"dammit."

"Cross," Seriff called, "got any Queens?"

"...Dammit."

"Ha. Fork 'em over bitch."

The dragoness snickered at Axe's comment, glancing between her own cards and the unusually pale skull of Honey. "I'm more of a Chaotic Neutral than a Chaotic Evil." 

"can you chaotic good her into cutting that shit out?" He seemed to be pleading with Seriff, as the Aussie was the closest friend present to the dragoness. 

Alas, all the one-armed skeleton did was shake his head. "Nope. I value my life."

Regarding the Swap Papyrus with a speculative expression, she smirked. "Hey, what's with that look? Don't worry, I'm a friendly dragoness most of the time. Immortals everywhere hate me for getting too chummy with humans and monsters, in fact, but they can't do shit about it so they just whine to my siblings." She took a moment to cackle in amusement. "Too bad they don't care either. Only thing they might not like is that I play with my food."

Being too lazy to actually stand up, Meraki simply set a smoldering cognac gaze upon the still-horrified skeleton, and licked her lips. "Wanna play, _Honey_? I bet you'd taste rather sweet."

...the four were suddenly alone again, and the laughter of the dragoness carried through the mansion, as she returned her gaze to her cards. "Hey, Oz, got any sevens?"

"...Dammit."

Seriff gave his cards, but gave a fanged grin as he put down another pair thanks to Cross. 

Stars he loved having Meraki around. It made things so much more _**fun. =)**_

* * *

" _hey, seriff, we need ya to come shoppin' with us. almost outta liquid magic again. and we're getting a new car for giant, courtesy of gold from the dragon and the other two._ "

That had been said by Sans a few hours ago, and even though the Aussie had left with him and Papyrus shortly after, none of the three guests had followed. Meraki had gone to 'explore' the house, so this left Axe and Cross lounging in the living room to have a nice conversation amongst themselves.

That is, until Raspberry noticed them still hanging around. "UGH, WHY HAVEN'T YOU LEFT YET?"

How rude.

"it's sad when you get better reception at a place of literal nightmares instead of a place meant to be for the good guys. whatever happened to hospitality?" Axe rolled his eyelight. 

Cross shrugged, before responding to the Rude Lil Shit- I mean Raspberry. "We were just talking about the little adventures Seriff and I have done. Like the one time he pole-danced~"

"WAIT." The sockets of the FellSwap Sans narrowed as he regarded the two, and slowly put his hands on his hips. "SERIFF, POLE-DANCING OF ALL THINGS."

...he was intrigued. "DO YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE EVIDENCE OF THIS OCCURING?"

Nearby, on the staircase, Lust and Flush were slowly sneaking downstairs towards the living room, their sin senses tingling.

"I have more than just evidence... I have a video of everything we ever did together!" Cross held his phone up proudly, "I have a video of him pole-dancing, one of what happened underwater yesterday, one of him and I egging the Doodle sphere..."

_"What!?"_

Ink darted through the doorway from the kitchen, snatching the unlocked phone from Cross' hand and scrolling through until he saw the video of the final act mentioned. His voice rose progressively higher in pitch every time he shrieked the word 'what,' his shock making it clearly evident that he hadn't suspected them at all.

_**"What!?!?"** _

SO IT WAS _THEM_ WHO HAD DONE IT.

"I fought Error for this, you fools! No wonder he was laughing the whole time!"

"Oh hey shortstack! I didn't notice you for a moment, When did you get here?"

Was that the sound of a soul shattering, or of glass breaking? 

Hmm.

One might think it was both.

"Wait wait no my phone-" Cross snatched the device back, quickly checking the screen for damage, before releasing a sigh of relief. "Good. It was only the case..."

After this, he looked over to see Ink still standing where he'd previously been, looking as though he'd gone through the five stages of grief within two seconds flat. The emotional impact was still present upon his skull, and it stayed there for a few seconds longer before he seemed to recover.

"I was in the kitchen listening to your conversation and betting with Dream on how long it'd take for everyone else to finally kick you out. Blueberry and I also have a bet going on how violent your removal will be."

Cross frowned."Rude. We're just waiting for Oz to come back!" He turned on his heel dramatically, seating himself back on the couch. "I suppose I'll just keep my video of Ozzy pole-dancing for Axe and I."

"oz?"

"it's a nickname for seriff. ya know, a real one instead of his last name."

"so you have a video of seriff pole-dancing?" Syrup asked, appearing from no where behind Ink before crossing his arms. "i don't believe it."

"THAT'S WHAT I SAID!" Raspberry huffed.

Lust and Flush snuck closer... It seemed almost as though the jaws theme could be heard coming to a close, as the two suddenly popped up on either side of the couch where Cross was sitting and grinned at him.

"You have a video of Seriff displaying one of our skills, hmm?" Flush leaned in a little closer- not enough that he was being smothering, but enough that it'd be noticed and regarded as just slightly _too_ close.

On the other side, Lust did the same, his gaze half-lidded with amusement. "do show us, cross. we'll rate whether it's true dancing that seriff was doing or just-"

"hey, if dancing is being rated, i should be the one to do so. it's the basis of my universe for star's sakes."

Everyone paused to look at the Dancetale Sans standing in the doorway, and he scowled slightly. "what? i heard dancing mentioned in the same sentence as seriff. i wanna see what the kid can do."

...he didn't hear the 'pole' part.

Cross shifted uncomfortably in between the two Lust brothers, "Uh... I can hook it up the TV if you guys are so interested. Technology is more of Seriff's thing but he taught me a bit or two... enough to hook things up and all that."

He then pointedly looked at Lust and Flush, "But I kinda need _room to move_."

"No problem whatsoever, Crossy~" The UnderLust brothers, satisfied with getting their way, leaned back with angelic smiles to allow the monochrome-clad skeleton to set things up.

As Syrup and Razz took another couch, Honey could be seen passing by through a doorway, peering in before continuing on his way. There was a distinct sense that he was the smart one in this scenario; especially since Axe smirked at the doorway as the other passed by.

HipHop, glancing between each of those before him, slowly began to realize that he may have walked into something more than just dancing... But he stuck around, sliding into a nearby chair to settle in and get ready for dance judgement. It wasn't like he had much else to do right now, anyways.

"Please don't ever call me that again..." Cross muttered as he set up the TV. 

After everyone was situated, Cross clicked one more cable into place, and tada~ You could see everything happening on his phone. Scrolling down a list of videos, he clicked one somewhere and the middle. 

The first thing that reached them was the background noise, and the images of people at a nightclub- Wait he did this in public? Shit.

The intro to Nana by Trey Songz started, courtesy of the DJ off to the side of the video, and Seriff strutted onto the stage. His eyelights giving his face a soft glow along with the dim lights of the club. He stripped off his jacket, throwing it at the Camera at the slight grin. You could hear Cross mutter the word _"Shit-!"_ before it was ripped off just in time for Seriff to start.

HipHop slowly peered over at Lust and Flush, a blank expression upon his face as he took in the simultaneously serious, speculative, and amused emotions upon their own. Yep. He'd walked into something he wasn't prepared for.

As the skeleton in the blue hoodie returned his attention to the screen, those in the room failed to notice Blueberry looking in through the kitchen doorway, one eyelight glowing slightly brighter than the other as he directed his magic to move the pots and pans for cover. StoryShift Chara stood beside him, peeking through the other side of the doorway and assisting him in making diversion noises.

Snooping? The Swap Sans? Nah, he was cooking with Chara, couldn't you hear the clangs and bangs?

The eyelights of those in the room were riveted on the screen, as Seriff could be seen gently gliding around the pole using his hand to hold him up. There was no glow of magic- this was only the strength of his single arm holding him up. Incredible...

The skeleton on screen suddenly pulled himself completely onto the pole, climbing up with ease. He brought his legs together and flipped himself upside down arching his back as his hand glided up and down the pole. His legs being the only things that kept him from falling before he finally grasped at the pole and returned his feet to the ground. Wait, were the top buttons to his plaid shirt always undone? How-?

Lust nodded in approval, taking a seat beside Cross on the couch and leaning forward. "good form, good form, with a dash of subtle mystery on the buttons. he could stand to be a little more fluid, but his constant motion elsewhere disguises the slight jerkiness as he climbs."

"His flexibility is a plus as well... Popcorn?" A pleasant voice offered the observing skeletons some popcorn, and as a few nodded, multiple bowls were passed out amongst them. Nobody stopped to wonder who had gotten the popcorn.

In the doorway with Blueberry, Chara took a handful of popcorn from his bowl and whisper-cheered at the Seriff on screen. "That's mah boi!"

Seriff wasn't on the ground for long, and now that his warm up seemed to have run its course, he took a few quick steps around the pole to gain enough momentum to grab it and swing his entire body around in graceful circles. He transitioned almost flawlessly by grabbing the pole with his leg and letting go with his hand while rolling his pelvic bones ever so slightly. Continuing to twirl, his plaid shirt was then completely unbuttoned, and thrown to the crowd. 

Oh...

Fangirls in the crowd screamed as the shirt was thrown to them, and you could hear a cry of victory as someone caught it. Ah- this must've taken place in one of the universes where the game of the Monsters' freedom had been released to the public, like Sielutale or EvolutionTale. That, or the crowd was just easily riled up.

"thirsty, aren't they?"

Flush cast an amused glance to his brother, before returning his attention to the screen. "You speak as though you have any room to talk, brother."

"This was taken in Sielutale. He was lucky the girls didn't fucking mug him while he was on the stage, but I think it's because they didn't want the dance to stop." Cross grinned, "It was great. I got several numbers from that experience."

"it was funny though- watchin' him run down the street with nothin' but a pair of boxers on and carryin' what clothes he didn't throw to the crowd while fans ran after him." Axe chuckled.

As attention returned to the screen, those watching saw the Aussie skeleton cast a wink towards the _lustful_ audience... Wait, was that Lust Sans in the crowd? Wearing a highly fashionable disguise? What?

Everyone stared at the skeleton beside them, and Lust shrugged, bonebrows raised in surprise as he shook his head. "it's not me guys, i swear."

As HipHop tossed a slipper at Lust, calling bullshit on this statement, it was surprisingly Cross that came to his rescue. "No, it actually wasn't Lust. I thought so at first, with that sense of style, but apparently it was another Sans just passing through."

"i wanna meet that guy."

"You'll have to find his universe first."

With that challenge issued and a few bets between Ink and Blueberry placed, the various skeletons returned to watching Seriff work the pole, noticing a few fangirls being blocked by the stage security personnel. "wild."

The video continued on, each time something would be shown slightly taken off before the next move afterwards it was stripped off. At the end of the song he was left in nothing but his tank top and boxers. His necklaces and ring seemed to be the only things he wouldnt take off. At one point he had his back to the pole, using his ankles and hand to hold on as he thrusted his pelvis towards the crowd.

Damn.

He the turned perpendicular to the pole, sticking his arm and a leg straight out while his tail and ankle kept him from falling. He brought his hand to his mouth, forming a V with his fingers before licking between them with a violet-red tongue.

DAMN.

Lust purred at the sight, and Flush growled slightly, blushing afterwards and placing a hand over his mouth. "Oh, excuse me!"

Wait, where'd they get those-

.........

Wow. Lust was taking notes with many inappropriate doodles on the sides, and Flush was making a very lovely nude sketch of Seriff making that particularly lewd gesture. The art was surprisingly detailed for how quickly it was being drawn. 

Syrup, seated nearby the Lust brothers, was forced to facepalm at the sight of Lust's purple clipboard and sexy-nurse style glasses, and Flush' charcoal pencils and sketchbook. It was astounding, the lengths those two would go to in their appreciation for sin.

Cross started giggling... oh god why was he giggling. **WHAT WAS HE PLANNING?!!?**

Past Cross started to giggle as well as Seriff finished his dance, finishing with a saucy wink and a bow. Of course, this was just his first dance. He was actually planning to dance to at least 2-3 songs before calling it a night-

What.

The DJ started playing 'Never Gonna Give You Up' by Rick Astley. 

Seriff on screen gave the DJ a strange look, before pointing at him with the confusion directed towards the crowd. But his confusion lasted only for five seconds before he shrugged and started his next pole dance. 

Pole dancing...

To one of the most used songs in Trolling. 

...

"wow, that is dedication." Lust raised a brow, eye lights showing slight respect for his taller counterpart.

Cross, still snickering occasionally, explained himself. "Somehow, this just makes it better than if he'd rage quit like I intended him to."

"he's got a lotta spite in him," Axe added, a few phalanges digging into his empty socket and tugging on the edge. "he actually got up onto the stage because someone said he wasn't the type of guy to pole-dance. their reasonin' was cuz he's the prince of monsters."

"If he didn't mind paying the property damages for it, he probably would've taken the pole and beat the dude who told him he couldn't do it. As it was, he still backhanded him pretty firmly."

...the skeletons of the mansion gained a new understanding of the Sielutale Sans.

"wait wait wait." Syrup spoke up, speaking up for everyone while raising a brow, "seriff is a prince?"

Cross and Axe raised their own brows in repsonse, "you mean ta tell me.. you guys didn't know?"

"Why do you think Oz was leaving all the time to go to his world when he was with you? He had responsibilities to take care of. Policies to read over, political agendas, some frickin ball they throw every year. Hell, he's gonna be the next King in about five years," Cross frowned. 

Axe finished the explanation with a grunt, "he even has a royal get-up he has to wear when workin'."

Raspberry rolled his eyelights at his brother, sitting up straighter in preparation to declare his knowledge of this fact, when a sudden loud voice exclaimed, "I KNEW THAT!"

...everyone turned to stare at Blueberry, and the clanging in the kitchen stopped as he realized his mistake. "Nice going, Blue," Chara commented, rolling her crimson eyes in amusement at the other's outburst. The Rick Roll music continued playing in the background, further comprising the Swap Sans' dignity.

"WHAT, I DID! AND SO DID RAZZ, AND SO DOES EDGE AND RED AND ERROR AND LUST!" He recovered quickly, skillfully turning the collective attention onto Razz and Lust whilst making it seem as though it wasn't unusual for him to be there. 

The former glared at his happy-go-lucky counterpart, jabbing two gloved phalanges towards his own eyelights and then towards Blueberry in the traditional _'I'm watching you'_ gesture, before turning to the others.  "OBVIOUSLY I KNEW- I ASKED HIM ONE TIME WHEN HE WAS GOING BACK HOME DURING ONE OF HIS TRIPS. I'M SURPRISED THAT MY BROTHER DIDN'T, BUT THEN AGAIN, HE IS THE LAZY ONE."

Lust smirked, glancing around at the others. "honestly, it'd be _hard_ not to know this, yet somehow we go around with our skulls shoved up our pelvises."

That produced a lovely mental image, and Syrup raised a single finger in question, before thinking better of it and remaining silent. Alas, Lust noticed this action, and answered the unspoken question anyways.

"yep, it's possible, but only the lankier skeletons can do so both ways."

...when had he tested this? Obviously he had tested this himself at some point, to know that it could be done in one direction for Sanses... But, how had he gotten someone ELSE to test it? How had he gotten a _Papyrus_ to test it?

Flush shrugged when everyone looked at him. "I didn't help him find this out."

The mystery persisted.

"hey, we're back from buyin' everything. had to make a few other stops but-" Sans immediately stopped where he was when he saw the video, his sockets void of light. Seriff popped his head into the living room in curiosity at what made his Original counterpart stop, and his eyelights lit up a little brighter at seeing himself on the TV.

"Oh hey! I remember that! That was a great night. 'Cept for the part where I had to run away almost completely naked from the fangirls. They became too much for the security to handle, if I remember correctly."

Cross and Axe shared a glance as the others took in Seriff's confirmation of their earlier stories, and burst out laughing, the latter finally releasing his socket as he did so.

_"I... just wanna tell you how I'm feelin'... Wanna make you, understand!"_

Sans just looked done with life, done with the universe, done with everything. "...turn it off please."

_"Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you do-"_

The TV was shut off, and the monochrome skeleton retrieved his phone, still snickering in amusement at the expression on the Original's skull. "C'mon Sansy, you know you're only jealous of his skill-"

A bone attack silenced Cross as he dodged it, and watched in some measure of curiosity as Meraki walked in from elsewhere in the house just in time to catch the attack with her torso. She took a moment to stare at the attack lodged in her chest, mentally noting that it had missed her vital organs, then shrugged and waved at Seriff. "Welcome back. I totally did not spend the past so many hours destroying things in your honor. Everything is still perfectly intact."

What.

Seriff snorted, waving back to his Immortal friend before turning to Sans, "In my defense, I was going to have 'Borderline' play next, but that lil shit over there," he jerked his thumb at Cross, "thought he could Rick Roll me, and he was the one that got Rick Rolled in the end."

He flicked his middle finger at his best friend (or at least best friend that was a skeleton) and grinned, "Thought you would 'ave learned after I bitch-slapped the guy who was the very reason why I was pole dancin'."

"YOU SLAPPED WHO?" Papyrus walked in, carrying almost all the groceries in his arms. 

Seriff shrugged, "Some guy who told me I couldn't pole dance just because I was a Prince. Showed him wrong, and then I backhanded him."

"WHILE I DON'T APPROVE OF THE VIOLENCE YOU USED IN DOING SO, IT IS GOOD THAT YOU STOOD UP FOR YOURSELF! SO, WELL DONE!"

Ah, Papyrus. Ever the optimist.

As Meraki turned to show her temporary new body piercing to the Quantumtale brothers and Honey, who'd been following her for some time before she entered the room- "Hey look guys, I've been _boned_ -" the Blueberry in the kitchen came out with a tray of nachos and various dips, and a few other snacks as well.

"SNACKS ARE SERVED! SERIFF, I BROUGHT SOME OF THAT RED VELVET CAKE ARISTA HAD GOTTEN YOU IN ANTICIPATION OF POINTING OUT THE EVENT OF YOUR CAPTURE."

Blueberry didn't even manage to get the words 'Red Velvet Cake' out before the said item was gone from his grasp. The Aussie munched on one of the said 'missing' cakes with a look of pure joy. His tail flicked once in a while to show his satisfaction.

...How someone could go from sexy and sassy to completely adorable was completely unknown to them.


	12. Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little ball of Fur...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Kitty, Sleepy Kitty, Purr Purr Purr
> 
>  
> 
> Seriff is overworked. Flush has a solution for that!

Seriff rubbed at the sides of his head, a half drunk cup of coffee still in front of him. But it wasn't doing him much good. 

Cross and Axe visited a few weeks ago, and seeing them had remedied the somewhat feeling of being an outcast among the Multiverse Manor skeletons. After all, despite some skeletons best efforts Seriff was still pushed aside by those with a grudge and treated with suspicion by others. He understood why, but at the same time they could at least tone it down. 

He was already starting to miss Nightmares palace. 

Ah, speaking of palaces reminded him why he was so tired to begin with. 

While Cross and Axe were visiting, they had also dropped off a few of his important paperwork bags filled with a months work of papers and policies he needed to read, sign, or fill out in his room. His parents were going to be stepping down in just a few short years, so they would be spent transitioning the work from them to him slowly. Thus the paperwork, but the textbooks on different countries laws and cultures were a self inflicted work. Something he was working on so he wouldn't be walking in blind. Also, culture was just so fascinating to him. To experience different variants and see things from a different perspective.... It was interesting. 

Unfortunately, his capture had led to a slight back up in paperwork, so now he had to play catch up in order to get everything done in time. 

Which explained why he was very near falling asleep in his chair after making breakfast for him and the kids. Only him and the kids.

Because fuck everyone else.

'Cept Papyrus. He was cool.

Once done with their meals, the kids in question hopped down from their chairs and set off for whatever new adventure the day would bring, Quantumtale Papyrus waving cheerfully back to Seriff as he did so. "Cya later, Oz!"

It seemed the tyke had picked up on his preferred nickname. Observant, that one was, much like his brother.

"And uh... you should probably take a nap or something. You look both exhausted and irritated enough to stab someone. Cya!" With that said, TK ran off after his bro, passing by Red and Giant just outside the door.

What an interesting combination.

Seriff hummed back a response to TK, snorting softly at the mentioning of stabbing someone. Stab was such a weak word, he felt more like gutting the next person who fucked with him. 

...Stars, the kid had a point. He was tired, but he was behind enough already. He had to get those papers done and sent on time. Hell he only had enough time to eat and then he had to head back to his room and check to make sure that none of the policies mom wanted to implement would interfere with the laws or traditions of the land.

Suddenly, a wild asshole appeared, kicking Seriff's chair out from beneath him.

...

It seemed that Red had a death wish. At least Giant had a proper expression of dismay upon his cracked skull, seeing the Aussie skeleton laid out flat on the floor, but Red was laughing his nonexistent ass off... Yep, he definitely had a death wish.

Seriff's face twitched, but smoothed out to form an absolutely blank expression. It was so blank, Frisk would be proud. Getting up and dusting himself off, he kept his neutral expression as he picked his chair back up. Pushing it into place, he picked up his cup of coffee, still almost full...

And _shoved it straight through Red's **eyesocket**_.

_"sCREEEEEEEEE-"_

Wow. Giant was not aware that the voice of a Sans could reach high registers of that measure, let alone the voice of an _UnderFell_ Sans. This was definitely being noted for future reference.

...and apparently being recorded, if the onyx and gold-cased phone sticking through the window nearby was indeed aimed at Red.

"fuckin' cocksucking shitfUCK-" Red yanked at the coffee mug now lodged in his eyesocket, more of the lukewarm substance being spilled over his clothes as he did so. "-do ya have ANY IDEA how bad coffee is fer leather!?"

"Yes. Yes I do." Seriff replied, fixing the collar to his own leather jacket. He felt immense satisfaction at seeing that the handle had managed to get stuck to something inside Reds socket. Nightmare taught him how to do that when he was 19; he would have to message the goopy skeleton later about this. 

Moving his hand to fix the other side of his collar, he leaned away from the two and walked towards the door, his posture slightly slack from exhaustion. "Well have fun with that. I'll be in my room if anyone needs me."

Giant nodded in acknowledgement, his eyelights studying the Aussie as he began to brew a kettle of tea. "If you require assistance, do not hesitate to inquire it of me or my brother. We don't want another event like that illness to take place."

Harboring some guilt there, hmm? Looks like Giant could feel some sins crawling up his back, and Red as well, considering that the grumpy Fell Sans dropped his displeased muttering in favor of silent brooding. It was a shame that Seriff had no idea why they were so uncomfortable about discussing that time while he was around.

Seriff watched them for a moment, silent as he judged their reactions. Finally, he turned away with a shrug. "It's fine. You wouldn't be able to do much anyways." Even then, it was none of their business what the hell he did with his time. 

He let out a sigh as he headed back the stairs, disappearing into the blackness of his room before the door closed with a resounding click.

The scratching of pen against paper was the only sound that filled his room for some time, with the occasional buzz of his phone from different people. A few were the kids of poltical staff like himself questioning what the theme was for this year's ball bash- fuck, he forgot about that. The others being fully grown adults fumbling on agendas with other countries and asking for advice on the best course of action to take.

So when Seriff heard his phone buzz once more, he wasn't exactly expecting to see that it was Nightmare. Damn, when was the last time he talked to him?

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** Hey

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** Hey Oz

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** I haven't been able to spam the sock dream in a full month when tf are you sleeping

 **WTF Dad:** When I'm Dead

 **WTF Dad:** Oh

 **WTF Dad:** _Wait_

 **WTF Dad:** in all seriousness tho I gotta work on this stuff

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** Sleep dammit

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** I know you have a lot of work to do but your efficiency will drop and mistakes will be made if they haven't been already

 **WTF Dad:** if i can type you without using text talk or making mistakes im good.

 **WTF Dad:** which means i'm fine

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** I could give you a nightmare simulating death if you want

 **WTF Dad:** wait wouldn't that just make me not want to sleep?

 **WTF Dad:** i mean

 **WTF Dad:** i want to sleep trust me. but I think that would just make me wanna stay up if it meant never having that nightmare again

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** okay correction-

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** a nightmare simulating the _afterlife_

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** I've been there, Death gave me a tour once, most of it is sickeningly pleasant

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** but at least I get to torture the "evil" souls as part of their punishment if I feel like a power boost :3

 **WTF Dad:** oh god is it like the purgatory for freiza in dbz. 

**WTF Dad:** with like fucking dancing caterpillars and happy little fairies while there's happiness and rainbows. 

**WTF Dad:** because i fucking swear i will kill someone

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** anyways get to sleep or I'll do something you probably wouldn't want me to

 **Your Concerned Dadmare:** :3

 **WTF Dad:** wait... 

**WTF Dad:** what are you planning

 **WTF Dad:** nightmare

 **WTF Dad:** what are you planning

**WTF Dad:** ... 

**WTF Dad:** that five minute silence concerns me

 **WTF Dad:** ...

 **WTF Dad:** dad what are you planning

_[ **Your Concerned Dadmare** has changed his name to **Your Mischievous Dadmare**. ]_

**Your Mischievous Dadmare:** nothing special, don't worry

 **Your Mischievous Dadmare:** I have already done it

 **Your Mischievous Dadmare:** and no, the afterlife is actually fairly well tailored to the souls of individuals

 **Your Mischievous Dadmare:** some sort of net magic links the desires of all together and allows them to interact with each other freely while achieving their own greatest hopes and dreams that they failed to in life

 **Your Mischievous Dadmare:** it's disgustingly pleasant, but at least there are fewer people allowed in the positive areas than the negative ones

 **Your Mischievous Dadmare:** something I appreciate though is that souls alone apparently can't adapt to the magic of the afterlife, so I could torture someone the same way forever and they wouldn't get used to it :3

 **Your Mischievous Dadmare:** whoops, rambling

 **Your Mischievous Dadmare:** btw I texted the dragon bitch and apparently she's right behind you

 **WTF Dad:** and you thought it was good idea to call her a bitch... why?

 **Your Mischievous Dadmare:** we have an understanding.

Seriff turned away from his work and glanced up, raising a brow. "so...any reason for standing behind me like a creep other than to freak me out?"

Meraki smirked, reading the final text over Seriff's shoulder, and eventually nodded. "Yep. Just wanted to warn ya that Syrup is on his way up here with G. They got a look in their eyelights like they're planning something. Probably to force you to sleep. I'm pretty sure they're armed with drugs."

Seriff groaned, rubbing at his eye sockets in both irritation and drowsiness. If it weren't bad enough with the worked needed done it was everyone else bothering him. 

He missed it when they would just straight up ignore him. 

"Thanks for the heads up mer..." He paused. "also do you that video of me shoving my coffee cup into red's eyesocket? i want to send it to dad."

...

"also if you tell him i called him dad more than once, i'm never speaking to you again."

"Hah, sending it now dude." Seriff's phone vibrated as the video was sent, and Meraki sauntered over to the door. There, she paused, her head tilted slightly to the side... and then BOOM!

The door was flung open, and the two skeletons leaning on the doorway fell into the room.

...nice job G and Syrup. Nice job.

"ya know, next time you could just..." Seriff turned his chair in their direction before gesturing to his door helplessly with his pen, "knock? its kinda what doors are made for?"

"So Oz, want me to kick them out for ya, or are you prepared to wrangle them yourself?"

The Aussie shook his head. "nah, its fine mer. pretty sure they didn't mean to eavesdrop."

At least he hoped they didn't.

The only indications that showed Seriff was actually working was the trademark glasses of a Sans. Not to mention his leather jacket sung on the back of his chair to keep his movements from being restricted, and a black Signo 307 pen in his hand.

"...he's speaking in full lowercase. it's worse than we thought." Syrup glanced meaningfully over at G from his place on the floor, before the two skeletons returned to their previous upright positions.

As G approached, peering curiously at the papers and documents scattered across the desk, Meraki sent fingerguns towards the three and backflipped out the window, leaving them to do their conversing.

"So," G began, "it's time to let you in on something that occurred during your illness."

This should be good.

When G went to pick up an interesting looking paper however, his fingers were immediately smacked away, Seriff giving him a stern glare. The glasses and tired look really gave him a professor kind of vibe almost made G feel like he was back in college, "don't touch those. I just finished signing that."

"... also why am I getting a three stooges vibe here?" Seriff turned towards the door, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "where's the third stooge?"

Blueberry peered in with a guilty expression from the doorway, only his skull and gloved fingers visible. "I'M SORRY!"

"called it!"

Seriff then turned towards G, frowning in sight agitation. He was _working_ for fucks sake, and the other wanted to talk about that one time he was ill?  " **what?** "

Seemingly unfazed by the aggression present in the Aussie's voice, G leaned against the side of the desk, at least being considerate enough to avoid disturbing any of the other papers. "When you were sick, you had a few delusions. At one point, you thought that my brother and I were your Gaster, speaking to us as such and revealing a few things that I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted to tell us for a long time."

Syrup took out a caramel candy and popped it into his mouth, tossing a few to Blueberry, Seriff, and G, before he added onto what the latter had been saying. "what we're tryin' to say is that you're close to that level of exhaustion. we've been that tired before ourselves, and we know how it looks on other people. so basically, if you don't want to reveal more shit y'don't want people to know, ya should prolly get some sleep."

Seriff tensed, leaning back in his seat and taking off his glasses for a moment to rub at his eyes, "so that's why you all were acting so strangely afterwards..." He muttered. His eyes opening for a moment, a dim glow of his eye lights casting onto his face before he sighed, and got up. "Get out."

"Seriff-"

"I said **g e t o u t**."

Hesitantly, the skeletons in the room left, passing by Blueberry on the way out. The Swap Sans was left behind, and he too hesitated, remaining in the doorway a few moments longer...

When he finally spoke, it was a lot quieter than normal.

"They regret it, taking advantage of you like that. If G hadn't just now told you what they did, Classic Papyrus was going to round them up and forcibly make them apologize to you." He paused, and reached for the handle, preparing to close the door behind him on his way out. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry you didn't find out sooner. Please sleep soon. Goodnight."

With that, the door was closed, and Seriff was left alone with his thoughts.

He waited until he was completely sure they were gone before he let out a large breath. He ran a hand over the top of his skull and paced around a few times, before taking glasses off and tossing them as aggressively as he could without scratching them. The room felt too small now, too closed in. 

His eyes glanced over at his window, before looking at his jacket. 

He needed to get out.

* * *

The best thing about having cat like reflexes, and a room on the second floor, is that it made it really easy to climb up to the top of the manor. 

Cigarette smoke left his mouth as he sat back. He told Frisk that he wouldnt smoke as much as he did when they had fist met, but that didnt stop him from smoking a few every once in a while when the kid wasn't around. Although, he thought amusingly to himself, calling the 5'11 18 year old a 'kid' wasnt very fitting anymore. The sky was the clearest he's ever seen it in a while. You could see the colors of the stars and sky so much better. 

He would fall asleep right here if it weren't for the fact he probably wouldn't wake up till tomorrow evening with search parties in the forest.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

What a peculiar sound to hear in this otherwise peaceful nighttime. Was it an odd sort of bird? Was it the engine of a low-flying plane? It could be either, considering that it came from above, but shortly afterwards, logic dictated that the figure visibly falling from the sky was not a bird or a plane.

Nay, this was a humanoid being; a skeleton to be precise. ~~What other favored creatures are even in this fandom anyways?~~ As said skeleton landed on the rooftop beside Seriff, he lifted his skull, and his identity was revealed!

"Ah, thank you, Miss Meraki!"

...it was Flush.

A smooth roar answered the skeleton's thanks, even though the dragoness had thrown him onto the roof while still in human form, and the bushes at the base of the house rustled dramatically as she took her leaf.

Flush glanced over at Seriff, and waved cheerfully. "Hello there!"

Ah, the precious Papyrus of UnderLust. Once he had learned that the beings of other universes weren't as openly affectionate as they were in his own, he'd always asked before initiating physical contact. It was almost adorable, his seemingly limitless consideration, and unsurprisingly it had earned him quite a few friends among his alternate selves and brothers.

Even so, how this cuddly creature had befriended Error was still a mystery to most residents of the mansion.

Seriff stared at Flush for a moment, before shaking his head, "y'know what? i'm not even gonna ask..." He turned his view back to the stars, letting out a yawn that revealed his fangs. He wasn't as self conscious about them as he used to be however.

"Can I hug you?"

...

...

Was he serious? ~~No, Hes Flush.~~

...Fuck he couldn't deny him no matter how much he wanted to. Shit. 

"Fine." The Aussie waved his hand, putting out the bud of what was left of his cigarette and flicking it away.

"Yay~!" Flush immediately pulled Seriff close into his lap, cuddling the Sielu Sans with a simultaneous glee and calmness to him.

Now, a moderately-known fact about the Lust brothers was that they were in a constant state of heat, as with all the adult monsters within their home universe. Due to this, the two brothers had a stronger control over themselves than most of their alternates- they had to, if they wanted to be accepted or even just allowed around others in this universe. Flush hadn't quite the iron control of his brother yet, due to his excitable and amorous nature, so there was often... a leakage of sorts, from his aura.

Warmth, welcoming and relaxing, almost constantly seeped forth from this skeleton. A side effect of this was that he was one of the best skeletons to cuddle... and he had lots of practice doing so.

Seriff didn't stand a chance.

The exhaustion was slowly seeping in the longer he stayed in the others hold. His mind was protesting, saying he had too much work to do. But his body didn't do anything to move. 

Fuck, he loved cuddles.

He never said it out loud, not in front of the other skeletons, but if you went to his house and asked for a cuddle, you'd find that his family and friends would be pretty okay with it due to the Sielu Sans' love for them.

He closed his eyes, purring softy still at the feelings of warmth as he sunk deeper into the Underlust Papyrus' hold.

It took a few minutes before Seriff finally fell asleep, Flush rocking him side to side with the cuddles. At this point, the Lust Papyrus grinned to himself and carefully picked up the sleeping Aussie, making his way to the area of the rooftop above his own bedroom balcony.

There wasn't much sense in waking him after all the effort that'd gone into getting him to sleep, so Flush was particularly careful with his movements in climbing down onto the balcony. After that, however, it was easier than his brother to move through his room to the mansion's hallways, his cargo not rousing in the slightest.

Along the way, Flush passed by Giant, who nearly dropped his clipboard in surprise at the sight of Seriff finally asleep. "You... got him to sleep? How?"

Seriff stirred ever so softly in Flush's arm, but made no indication of waking up. Flush shrugged, entering Seriff's room with a sly grin. "Magic~"


	13. WHAT IS LOVE?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BABY DON'T HURT ME  
> DON'T HURT ME  
> NO MORE

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

_**Thud.** _

"OZ, PLEASE STOP BANGING YOUR HEAD AGAINST THE TABLE. YOU'RE GOING TO HURT YOURSELF."

Seriff groaned, "Papyrus, a light bang on the head is probably the last thing in this world to harm me." His eyelights glanced towards a certain Edgy Sans. "And will _definitely_ not be the most painfully scarring thing to happen."

After getting the one finger salute from said skeleton, Seriff turned his tired- but not as tired as last week- eyes towards the machine he was currently being hooked up to. 

Despite his many protests and refusals, the others had managed to lasso him into getting a soul check. ~~A very unneeded soul check.~~

It was just five of them currently, not including himself of course; Sci, Red, Classic, Honey, and Papyrus. G and Giant would have been here too, but they have been respectfully keeping distance away from him after revealing what they knew. 

Which was why he was getting a Soul check to begin with. Word had reached the others that he now knew, and so the first thing they did ( _after_ apologizing. You can thank Papyrus for that,) was to try and convince him to let them to do a check on his health and stats. Of course, that required his soul.

"Alright, just a few more tweaks and we should be ready to go..." Sci adjusted the settings on screen, as Classic Sans made sure the scanner was correctly aimed at the optimal position. "Great!"

"this scanner is the automatic one, right?"

Sci nodded in response to Honey's question, gesturing to Seriff's sternum. "It activates when a soul enters its scanning range, yes. I've calibrated it to our souls already, so ours won't be confused with Seriff's when the scan starts."

Alas, none of them were aware of the few modifications that had been made to that scanner several months before, as they were all either too lazy or didn't have the knowledge to do a thorough check.

It was mostly a combination of both.

"IS IT READY YET?" Papyrus sounded almost as bored as he looked, somehow speaking normally even though the chair he was seated on was spinning at a dizzying speed to watch. He'd come to be moral support, but it seemed that they were all doing just fine thus far.

"yep. ah, seriff. you ready?"

"Ready as a dead man being prepared for his funeral," came the dry ~~and disturbing~~ response.

"...seriff why are you like this." Red sighed, pinching the bridge of his nasal bone with his phalanges. 

The Aussie raised a bone brow, "Do you _really, truly,_ want me to answer that, Emo McShorty? Because honestly I don't think you would like the answer much."

Sci facepalmed, and Papyrus took this opportunity to pull Red into the spinning chair of doom, utterly ending the argument before it could truly begin. It took a few moments for this to register, but soon the air was filled with angry grumbles and snarls, as the Fell Sans tried in vain to escape.

"...welp, now that's been taken care of..." Sans gestured to Honey, who gestured to Sci, who blinked for a few moments and suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

"Oh! Right. Initiating the startup sequence." Buttons were pressed, screens were tapped, and levers were pulled... 

And suddenly, in a flash of disorienting magic energy, the room was empty. 

Seriff was now alone in the room; the other five skeletons nowhere to be found; the swivel chair Papyrus and Red had been spinning on slowly reached a stop. The soul scanner automatically shut down, a puff of smoke coming from the cooling vents as its displays went blank. This... didn't look good.

"....What the fuck?"

Seriff ripped the wiring that attached him to the machine off, getting up and looking around the room. "...Guys?"

Oh fuck. There was a loud noise and now that's going to attract the others down stairs and now they're gonna blame him for all this. Great. Fantastic. ...How was he going to explain this? Okay, he just needed some time to think up a summary to explain what happened-

"GUYS? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT NOISE?"

-aaaaand times up. Fuck his life. 

Three figures rushed into the room. Two of whom he liked, Epic Sans and Storyshift Chara. The other one was Raspberry, someone he was chill with but not someone he particularly liked.

He could only imagine how this looked, him standing in the middle of the room, the machine broken and the others gone.

"It seems that something interesting occurred here-" Chara started, before being interrupted by Epic.

"Well said bruh, well said."

Chara finished their statement, amusement growing upon their face. "-so, do you have any explanations for this?"

"...Okay... So.. Before I say anything. You can't get mad at me."

"What did you do bruh?"

"Alright so, I was minding my own business-"

"BULLSHIT," Raspberry snapped, slamming a gloved hand into a nearby table. 

Seriff shook his head, letting out a small whine, "Noooo, I waaaas." He turned to the machine and gestured wildly, "I was minding my own business, sitting on th' table like I was supposed to. Sci started up the machine and BOOM! Machine explodes, there's a bright light and everyone was gone. I literally have no idea where they went."

Chara peered around the area, taking a look at the slightly smoking machine before shrugging. "Eh, they probably took a few shortcuts away when the machine exploded. They _are_ an easily spooked bunch when it comes to experiments going wrong, after all. If they're not back in an hour, we can look around."

At least someone believed him.

"RIGHT, AND I'M THE QUEEN OF EVOLUTIONTALE," Razz scoffed. "LET'S JUST GET UPSTAIRS. THE OTHERS WILL PROBABLY BE WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED, AND SERIFF HERE CAN EXPLAIN IT TO THEM."

"I now feel bad for those poor people who would have to deal with you as a queen," Seriff raised a brow. 

Raspberry looked ~~rightfully~~ insulted.  "EXCUSE YOU, I WOULD MAKE A FABULOUS QUEEN!"

"Yah... no. I think the only thing you would rock would be wearing a dress."

"OF COURSE I CAN ROCK A DRESS! ALL SANSES CAN ROCK ONE, EVEN THE LAZY, GOOD FOR NOTHING ONES."

"Oh yah trust me I know."

"GOOD- WAIT HOW DO YOU KNOW?"

"....Lets get upstairs."

* * *

That was... disorienting. 

The five skeletons blinked their eyes separately, some shaking their head to wave off the shock of what had just happened. 

Wait...

What _had_ just happened?

"uh... did we get startled and teleport away again?"

There was a small moment of silence before Papyrus spoke up. "NOPE! IF YOU HAD, THEN HONEY AND I WOULDN'T BE HERE!"

"yo," Honey waved a hand, sticking a lollipop into his mouth and peering around the darkened area they were in.

Oh. That was true. Usually it was the Sanses who possessed this trait- the teleporting away when spooked thing- even the Swap variants. 

Sometimes if the Papyruses wanted a room cleared of their brother and alternate brothers, something- usually a plate- would be 'accidentally' dropped where they all could hear it. Away went the Sanses, usually returning within an hour, although the more anxious ones might stay away for the rest of the day. Hence, this method of clearing a room was used rather sparingly.

"So, uh, where are we?" Sci swept a hand through some nearby mist, and observed the way it followed the trail he made. Normal physics seemed to be working- _that_ was a relief.

"no clue." Classic Sans shrugged, glancing around as he walked towards Papyrus. "but maybe we should get outta here."

Grabbing his brother, he summoned the magic to shortcut back to the Manor...

...

...

It didn't work. 

Classic blinked once, then tried again... and again... and again... "uh.. guys? I can't cut outta here."

"really?" Honey focused his magic, and... there was nothing. "welp. guess we're stuck here."

A child's laughter came from nearby, instantly setting several skeletons in edge. Was... this an attack from Chara or something? They wouldn't put it past that demon, but if that was the case, what happened to Frisk?

The laughter echoed again, and nearby, the faint image of Seriff's old jacket seemed to shimmer through the mist.

"WAIT, IS THAT SERIFF?" Papyrus recognized it, and without further ado, strode off towards the image. Sans kept up sheerly by his grip on his bro's arm, but Sci ran after the two on his own.

With twin shrugs, Honey and Red followed after them, keeping on their guard.

As the skeletons came closer towards where Papyrus saw the image, the laughter grew louder. However, it's intent wasn't as malicious as they once thought. No, it was genuine, more pure than cruel. The Darkness around them lightened, brightened, and disappeared while the mist slowly cleared.

They...

They were in the Underground? 

"LOOK, THERE HE IS!"

The questions in most of their heads dissipated as Papyrus loudly pointed down the streets of New Home. The grey fur of the purple hoodie blocked most of Seriff's features from the back. He was walking down the cobblestone street, as if he had been this way before a million times.

_His stance seemed slightly off..._

"OZ, DO YOU KNOW WHY WE'RE IN THE UNDERGROUND?" Papyrus caught up to the purple-clad skeleton, and laid a hand on his shoulder to turn him around.

When the skeleton turned, however, with a rather confused expression, it was revealed that he was not Seriff. In fact, while he did look very similar to the Aussie they all knew and... well, knew, not all of them loved him at this point... this was not Seriff.

"..." The mysterious skeleton peered left and right, looking for whoever could have disturbed him, before going back on his way.

It didn't seem like he saw them at all... what was going on?

Now that they've seen the mysterious skeleton, they could now see the differences between him and Seriff. 

For one, Seriff was much taller, reaching 6'5" at the age of 27, while this man seemed to be about 5'11". There were no catlike qualities to him at all, no slitted eye lights, nor skeletal tail. His qualities were more of a Papyrus than a Sans, although he did have the mouth of said shorter skeletons. 

"okay. sci. yer the brainiac here, ya got any bright ideas?" Red turned towards the younger him. 

Science Sans hummed, furrowing his brows, "Well.. Maybe we were sent back in time? But if that were the case then that man should have seen us...."

"maybe followin' him would help?" Classic asked, watching the mysterious skeleton turn a corner.

"IT CANNOT HURT TO TRY!" With that declaration, the group of skeletons set off, following the mysterious one around the corner.

The sight that met their eyelights was rather adorable, and odd. Another skeleton monster was waiting, but this one seemed to be more feline than human, despite their anthropomorphic features. They embraced the one the group had followed, a mischievous smirk growing upon their face... and when they spoke in a thick Russian accent, it was revealed that they were female.

Huh.

"Mael, you're late. My sveet and I haff been waiting for you for three whole minutes, just look at how upzet he is."

A much smaller skeleton child, one that was bouncing in place with great impatience, seemed more excited than anything else. "Ahhh, _finally_! Le's go le's go!"

The group of five watched the three interact, speculating among themselves who they could be and why they couldn't see them.

"...do you remember the way 'ome?" Mael spoke up, a lilt of amusement to his quiet voice. He seemed to have a faint Spanish accent, one about as soft as his voice... Why were there so many skeletons with accents they hadn't met?

"Ya Ya Ya!!!" The small skeleton's accent was incredibly thick; it was to tell what it was. He turned quickly, only to trip over his own feet and smash his face straight into the pavement. 

Yowch. That had to hurt. 

However, the little kid just got back up and dusted himself off, acting as if nothing had just happened. "I'm okay!" The two older ones breathed out in relief, happy that he was at least too excited to care. 

"This way!!" The little skeleton tugged on the end of Mael's jacket, holding onto it so 'they wouldn't get lost without him' and heading in the direction he pointed. This happened almost the entire time they walked. 

"That way!"

"This way!!!"

"This way~!"

The child stopped in his tugging to pause, gaining an uncertain look before pointing in one direction and looking up at Mael, "...That... way?"

When the answer was positive, the child returned to his excited yells, "That waaay!"

~~This child was so damn cute.~~

Papyrus' eyes sparkled with joy at the fluffy sight, and Sci beside him was trying to hide a smile.

"tch... can we get back to findin' a way outta here?" Wow Red. So rude. How dare.

Honey shrugged, pretending that his own eyesockets didn't have sparkles in them by ignoring them completely. "i mean, we are. by following these people."

"whatever. this shit is too fuckin' cute for my tastes."

Classic felt his own smile turn a little more genuine at the sight. The kid reminded him so much of Papyrus when he was that young. 

The young child then pointed in one direction dramatically, "An' then we head straight this way, an' don't need ta turn anymore cuz home is right down th'road!"

"excellente, mi sol." Mael smiled, "you did well." 

The younger one beamed at him, before taking the hand offered to him by the female and walking alongside them. "So what's his name? Where's he gonna sleep? Can I read him his bed time story? I've gotten better at readin'! That means I can read to him right? Whats he look like? Do you think he likes spaghetti? I like spaghetti. Who doesn't like spaghetti! So long as it doesn't have beans in them. Who puts beans in spaghetti? Well other than you because you were confused and thought we were making a paste for burritos."

Man, that kid could TALK. 

But the Mael and the woman seemed to be quite used to such a barrage, as they answered most with ease and others with a sly, 'You'll see my Sweet~' or 'be patient mi sol.' 

"Why do you always keep your sword on you?" He asked, looking underneath Mael's hoodie to look at whatever weapon he was talking about. Although some had a sneaking suspicion they knew what it looked like. 

Mael hummed, "well, so that way i can always protect the ones who need it. like you and cardinal. that is what this blade was made for, to protect, but never kill." The child seemed wrapped into the Spanish man's small speech, literal stars in his eyes.

"Yes, Mael is right, little one." Cardinal smiled. "Remember that the innocent are always worth protecting. Even if they are mean, or ungrateful. They deserve a chance to live."

The child nodded, happily hugging her leg for a moment as they walked.

"Look. Look!" The child interrupted their little off to the side chat and pointed. In front of them was a small brick house, big enough for a small family but tiny compared to the houses they had passed getting there. 

A yellow fire elemental stood in the doorway, waiting for the three to enter and speaking in a low cackling, "You're just in time. He just woke up from his nap."

"Thank you so much, Ignis, for watching him while we were gone." Cardinal hugged her old friend, Mael keeping a respective distance back. "We really appreciate this."

"No need, I know what it's like when having kids." He replied with a small smile.

From inside the house, a loud squeal came, one full of carefree joy and happiness. The sound of it had the small skeleton vibrating in excitement, his tail slipping free from its place around his waist. It was at this moment that most skeletons realized who he was... He had to be Seriff.

"Did we actually go back in time?" Sci muttered, glancing around for any signs of them being acknowledged by inhabitants. There was no such indication, however, before he finally gave up and continued watching the scene before him.

Cardinal smiled. "He's been so excited to see his new little brother, 'e hasn't stopped going on about it all day." 

Ignis let out a hearty chuckle, pulling away from his longtime friend as he peered in, "All day? He hasn't stopped since you first told him 6 months ago."

Cardinal giggled, before her eyes lit up, "Oh, zat reminds me..." She turned towards Mael and crossed her arms. "I heard you call Sans 'Mi Sol' a few times while coming down here. I know I'm Russian but I still remember a few things you've told me in Spanish..." She raised a brow, "'My _Sun_ '? Are you serious?"

"no," Mael replied, a small smile appearing on his face, before pointing at a house down the street. "sirius is down in the brown house. i am mael."

...

...

...

"Zat's it, no more cheesecake for you."

Well, the skeletons could certainly see where Seriff got his sense of humor.

Mael staggered back a step, his jaw dropping open slightly. "mi querida, ¿cómo pudiste herirme así?" He put his head in his hands, collapsing to his knees, before peeking up with convincing fake tears. "me estás haciendo llorar..."

Such drama! Such romance! Such bloodshed! This should be starred in Mettaton's shows- somebody call his agent!

Cardinal rolled her eyes, Ignis snickering under his breath as Mael pleaded in Spanish. The feline skeleton proceeded to turn her back to him, "I hate it vhen you do this to me."

He went from his knees to her side in a flash, wrapping his arms around her. "por favor, perdóname por mis fechorías. ayúdame a aprender de ellos. lávame de mis pecados con un río de nuestra pasión. mi amor, mi vida," he nuzzled her neck, " _mi alma._ "

Shit, he was smooth.

Another tally from what Seriff got from his dad.

Sci blushed slightly, watching this, and Red leaned over towards him. "ya understand this crap or somethin'?"

Nearby, Sans shrugged. "i don't, so if he does, then he learned spanish after we started living in the mansion together."

The nerd nodded, his blush not fading in the slightest. "I uh, may or may not have watched some UnderNovela with Error once or twice before he was kicked out... Stars, this guy is more slick than a frictionless surface."

"lucky lady then. too much fuckin' effort for me," Red huffed, scowling at the scene.

Honey smirked. "maybe that's why you don't have a girlfriend."

"why you-"

"SHHHHHHH, HIS BROTHER IS BEING BROUGHT OUT!" With Papyrus silencing them, the group turned back to watch the scene, curiosity present in each pair of eyelights.

Three figures exited the small house; a light blue female flame by the name of Pyrrha, carrying a small bundle in her arms, and a miniature Grillby following with small chatter. Even young, one coul see that the features of Sielutale Grillby were almost exactly like the original, if only more red than orange. The bundle was handed to Mael, before Pyrrha went to stand by her husband's side, ushering little Grillby to follow.

"sans..." Mael kneeled down, allowing the younger to come closer, "say 'ello to your little brother. papyrus."

Child Seriff looked at the small bundle in awe, stepping closer to look at him. "he's so tiny..." He whispered, using lower caps to soften his voice. 

The baby Papyrus was bundled in a yellow blanket, the only thing seen being his arms and head. Tiny fangs replaced the human-like canines of a Papyrus, and soft flickers of yellow would sometimes shine through his sockets. 

Seriff looked up at Mael. "can I hold 'em?"

Mael looked at Cardinal, who gave a nod before Mael handed the youngest child to Seriff, making sure to show the 5 year old how to hold him properly. Seriff held him close, looking down with nothing but adoration and love. The younger let out a coo, a tiny hand grabbing at one of his phalanges. Seriff smiled, "hi there papy... "

"i'm your big brother sans."

The skeletons felt something in them soften, Red looking away with a huff as Papyrus cooed at the adoration in little Seriff's eyelights, the others experiencing reactions mixed between the two.

"SANS, IS THIS WHAT YOU LOOKED LIKE WHEN YOU SAW ME THE FIRST TIME?"

Classic glanced away, a periwinkle blush and a nostalgic smile on his face as he nodded. "heh, somethin' like that... before that it'd just been me 'n dad, and dad was busy a lot. havin' you appear was... well, one of the best days of my life."

"AWWW, I LOVE YOU TOO, BROTHER!" Papyrus tugged his bro into a hug, said brother going limp and laughing under the onslaught of affection... But it had to come to an end, or at least, be postponed.

"i hate to interrupt this gross display of affection, i really do, but buildings are disintegrating in the distance, an' it don't look natural."

Wait, what?

The group turned to look at what Red had pointed out, and saw that buildings were indeed disintegrating. Chunks broke off and turned to dust, and before they could react, the ground beneath their feet did the same... but they weren't falling.

What they had just seen, all of it... was an illusion of some sort? A memory? A hope? A dream? What was this? The tiny fragments of light around them settled into the rolling mist from before, darkness overtaking the background once more.

"...huh. so that's a thing. anyone got any _bright_ ideas to _shed some light_ on our situation?"

Sci tapped his phalanges against the palm of his hand thoughtfully. "Perhaps, we are not back in time..." He started slowly, "...but in Seriff's memories..."

He paced, mist swirling around him as his lab coat created wind. "Seriff is a Sans just like us, meaning he too might have gotten a little spooked by the combustion of the machine. When it malfunctioned, his magic might have reacted on its own, recognizing the dangerous situation that its wielder was in. However, because of the restraining power of his bracelet, his magic couldn't port him away. In turn his soul reacted next, likely activating some sort of defense mechanism, and caused a reaction of sorts. Instead of teleporting _him_ away... it teleported _us_ out." He turned to the others and adjusted his glasses, the glint from them causing questions to form considering there wasn't any light in the area.  "The problem with that is Seriff most likely was not thinking of a destination, so whatever he was thinking of is where we transported to."

"which just so happened to be his soul because of the check we were doing." Honey finished.

Papyrus spoke up, a thoughtful lilt to his voice. "OF COURSE, HIS MAGIC IS BLOCKED; THEREFORE HIS SOUL SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO AFFECT US."

"Unless..." Sci paused, his eyelights brightening, "...there was Intent strong enough to affect _our_ magic." When those present gave Sci a confused look, he waved it off, and resumed pacing.

"Look, humans don't naturally have magic, but they have Auras and Intent like the rest of us living beings. When a being's Intent is strong enough, they are far more successful in whatever it is they Intended to do. Regret, the desire to undo one's mistakes- that's usually the Intent behind the Frisks and Charas of our universes when they RESET. Most of them don't have their own magic, so they manipulate the magic of the environment itself with their Intent. And right now, with his magic blocked, Seriff is essentially reduced to the limitations of a human."

His sockets widening, Sans peered between the other skeletons and the misty environment around them, a realization coming to mind. "what if seriff _intended_ for us to see his memories? maybe not specifically his memories, but to understand something that we couldn't otherwise without seeing them? if he wanted it enough, he could've affected our magic. our guards were down when the machine exploded, if only for a split second. he could've affected us then."

"But what would seeing any of this do? Why would he want us to see?"

The question was left unaswered, as the mist suddenly... jerked? Could mist even do that? Dull noise filled the air... It sounded like crying of a small girl.

"shit, now what?"

The skeletons were careful to keep together, glancing around curiously as the mist began to shape itself into the brick walls and grassy fields and cement sidewalks of a school building. As they took a step forward, the slightly taller figure of an older Seriff walked briskly by them, pausing at the nearby corner before continuing around it.

With glances cast towards each other, the five skeletons moved after him, rounding the corner to see what their young alternate was up to.

This Seriff seemed to be only a year older than earlier, and he seemed to be concerned about the crying. Every few steps he would stop, listen, before heading in the direction he thought he heard it coming from. Eventually, he had lead them to the source; a young, yellow-ish peach colored dino child, sobbing into her knees. She must have been Sielutale Alphys.

Poor girl had a rough day, she just moved to New Home and already she was getting picked on at her new school just because she liked 'weird cartoons' and was more intelligent than them. Seriff shook his head, glad that he had given them such a tongue lashing for such horrible manners.

"Interesting. I hadn't met Alphys until I started working for Gaster."

Sci moved forward as he spoke, taking a closer look at the scene before them.

"She's really young, but it looks like she's closer to Seriff's age than my Alphys is to me. Mine is... well, referred to as the kid of Dr. Betas, for a comparison."

"hey there." The memory Seriff spoke softly, interrupting Sci's little spew. The young dino looked up, wiping away tears from her eyes. He tilted his head, "You okay?" When the response came back a negative, he gently dropped to his knees next to her. 

"You know what always make me feel better?" He smiled, before holding out both arms, "a hug!"

The little girl's eyes widened for a moment, before they grew even more watery. She sobbed loudly, throwing herself into the arms of the only person who has shown her kindness all day. 

Seriff squeaked at being thrown back, but giggled and hugged her back. 

"Don't worry, it's gonna be okay. I'll be here to help ya every step of the way," He hummed, patting her back. "And that's a Promise."

Red immediately stiffened, peering around at the mist-made environment as though expecting something to immediately go wrong. The others noticed this, and with a contemplative expression, Honey spoke up. "why suddenly nervous?"

The Fell Sans narrowed his sockets as the buildings in the distance began to disintegrate, and folded his arms. "promises like this dun' end well. i'm waiting for the memory where it gets broken or somethin', just fuckin' watch."

The two monster children disintegrated into dust along with the buildings, a little disturbing considering the last memory they had just disappeared. 

It changed back into the street they had seen the first time, only with little Seriff from earlier to be walking alone humming to himself. 

Yet something felt... off about this memory. The sky was greyer, and the buildings seemed to slant to the side and glitch.

Sans Classic seemed ready to say something, but paused, and simply took a step closer to Papyrus. What was with these glitches? Did they mean something? Was this a false memory of some sort? Whatever the case, he was gonna stay close to his bro.

Papyrus merely hummed thoughtfully, before picking up his brother beneath one arm and wandering forward, leaving the others to share an intrigued glance and follow after him.

Seriff hummed happily, at one point jumping onto the rock walls in someone's yard and balancing on them like one does on a circus wire. Eventually, the weight of his backpack and the fact that his tail wasn't out left him to hop off before he hurt himself. His house was in view anyways.

The house looked more worn down than it did last year, strangely enough.

Maybe it was the glitching?

The little boy finished his song under his breath and opened the door, "Mom, Dad! I'm home-"

**CRASH!**

Papyrus moved quickly, heading towards the source of the crash while being careful not to interact with anything around them. Sans was carried along, and Honey was right behind the two, leaving Red and Sci to hurry up or be left behind.

The group paused at what they saw, sharing expressions of confusion and concern for the memory Seriff as he walked in.

A thud from the younger's location indicated that he had dropped his school bag, electing to rush in the room to see something rather scarring for a 6 year old.

His mother was kneeling in shards of glass that was once a plate, clutching her stomach with a look of pure agony. His father had risen from his seat, only for him too to fall down next to her, one hand clutching his stomach and another around his wife's shoulders.

Seriff's eye slits widened in panic, rushing over and dropping into a skid toward his parents. He cared not for how the shattered porcelain ripped at his jeans, cutting small injuries into his bones. No... That was not important right now...

His parents were dying.

His eyelights pained and expression remorseful, Mael peered up at his son, and spoke a quiet plea. "don't hate him, mi sol. don't hate him."

"Dearest, he is-" Cardinal began, but silenced herself at the expression on her husband's face.

"please... don't hate him."

The skeletons watching had no idea who these two were referring to, or what was even happening, until Sci remembered something he'd learned about Sielutale several years before. 

"W-Wait, this is... Sans, Red, if this is what I think it is..." He paused, an expression of distress upon his face. "oh, poor Seriff..."

"No..." Seriff clutched at his dad's jacket, panic clear in his eyes as tears welled up, "You were supposed to eat. Everyone knows you're supposed to eat..."

Mael smiled, reaching up to cup his son's cheek. "mi sol, we would much rather you and papyrus and gaster continue on our legacy, than for us to carry on your memory. it is the saddest thing for a parent to outlive their children..."

He coughed, his hand dropping and his body seeming to crumple in on itself a little more as he did so. Cardinal leaned in, wrapping her arms around the two, and tried to catch Seriff's eyelights.

"My Sweet... we're sorry. We did our best. Please, take good care of Papyrus. Und everything we've taught you, the lessons you've learned... Don't forget, ja?"

Seriff leaned into his mother and father's arms. He had started crying in the middle of Mael's words, trying to get as much comfort as he could. Only six years old and he had to watch his parents leave him so soon...

If only he knew the events that would befall him next. 

"I promise..."

Unable to keep silent any longer, Sci explained what they were seeing. "The monsters of Sielutale require a regular intake of magic. You see, if they don't consume enough, then their magic turns to consume itself, and their bodies implode as a result."

"...an' if they eat too much, they'll explode. learned this back when seriff fell into underfell." At this remarkably passive comment from Red, Sans raised a bonebrow at his counterpart, who scowled back at him. "not a word, classic, not a single fuckin' word."

"sure thing, edgy-me."

"what did i just fuckin' say-"

"LANGUAGE, RED! AND LOOK!" Papyrus pointed ahead of them as the scene turned back into mist, soon being replaced by a new environment. This time, it seemed as though they were in a building of some sort, the rooms around them shades of white and grey. "A NEW MEMORY APPROACHES!"

A much older Seriff bust through a door to the left of them, about ten years old this time around. He was swearing under his breath, his Aussie accent still thick as ever. 

He took one step....

And tripped over Honey's sneaker and smashed his face straight into the floor. 

Ahh, some things never seem to change. 

"OH FUCK A CUNT'S WHORE SISTER, FUCK" The ten year old screeched, rolling into his back and clutching his nasal bone. "WHAT THE FUCK DID I FUCKIN' TRIP OVER A CUNT'S ASS CRACK OR SOMETHING?! SHIT FUCK."

Sans snickered beneath his breath, as Honey slowly drew back his foot with shock and regret. Red had no reservations, laughing loudly at the elaborate cussing their Aussie counterpart was doing.

Papyrus was... well... he had an utterly scandalized expression upon his face as he regarded the child Seriff. "HE'S... HE'S ONLY ABOUT TEN YEARS OLD!? WHERE DID HE LEARN THAT LANGUAGE!?"

"Bro! Language!!" Apparently, the Sielutale version of himself shared similar thoughts... in a British accent...

What was up with Sielutale Skeletons and having different accents? 

The little Papyrus was clad in a yellow shirt with two purple stripes, some dark blue pants, and yellow and white sneakers similar to Honeys. He pointed a finger in his brothers face accusingly, "You know you aren't supposed to use such crude language! What if there was an adult around?"

The ten year old grumbled under his breath, but picked himself up without anymore complaint. "You're right bro. Sorry."

"It's alright, I already forgave you!"

With a satisfied smile, the small Papyrus sauntered over to the nearby bookshelf, and began to scan the titles. There was a thoughtful expression on his skull, one that Seriff couldn't see from his position, but one that the five interlopers could... Honey in particular recognized that glint of curiosity in the younger's eyesockets.

"Sans? We've been living here a while, yes?"

The Aussie stretched, before turning towards his little brother. 

Seriff raised a browbone, but then shrugged, "For the last four years, yah. Why d'ya ask?"

"Well, we're safe here. Or as safe as we can get. Others won't attack us, we're fed, and even if we have to do a few exams here and there as payment, we're still safe with our big brother."

The other turned, his tail curled behind him as he regarded Seriff with curious eyelights... or rather, something that Seriff carried.

"So, why do you always have dad's sword with you?"

Seriff blinked, then blinked again, before he grinned. "Ah Paps, I don't carry the sword to protect myself...." He got onto one knee and clasped a hand on his little brothers shoulder. "It's so that way...

"i can always protect the ones who need it." The group jumped back slightly as the view suddenly glitched back when Mael had said the same thing to little Seriff. Before they could question why, it happened again, the memory around them distorting before them. 

It was now of an older Seriff, much like the one they know now. But he... was different. There was no scars, no scratches, no marks. He held no trace of the troubles that his alternate held, and was talking to a little skeleton child. It was there for a second, but unlike Mael, the two did not stay as long. It glitched back to the original scene. "-like you. That is what this blade was made for Paps, to protect, but never kill."

Sci jumped slightly when the scene glitched in rapid succession, taking a step closer to the Classic Papyrus beside him. Red and Sans looked similarly uncomfortable, considering the implications of what a faulty memory could do to someone's mind, but this had seemed as though it was a little bit more than that... as though it could have been real, but wasn't.

Or was it, in another timeline?

What even was reality?

"OKAY, LET'S STOP THESE EXISTENTIAL CRISES BEFORE THEY GET ANY FURTHER. SANS, SCI, RED, HONEY, WIPE THOSE LOOKS OFF YOUR FACES AND KEEP WATCHING."

With obedient nods, the four turned to look at the kid Seriff and his to-be-deceased Papyrus, noticing the latter's sparkling eyesockets.

"Like a superhero! You're a superhero, aren't you!? What's your alter ego, _huuuuuuuuh_? Is it The Fantastic Sans like you always say!? Are you training me to be your sidekick or protege?"

Seriff let out a genuine laugh, picking up his little brother and placing him on his shoulders. "Myeh heh heh! Yah I am! After all, the _Fantastic_ Sans would not be able to stop crime without the the help of his companion," He gave a fancy flourish,  "the _Amazing_ Papyrus!"

Well, it was a good thing Geno wasn't there. He'd probably hug them, and thereby freak them out because they couldn't move.

Oh no. Sci. Don't do it. Don't-

Okay, crisis averted. Nerd secured. "DO NOT TOUCH THE MEMORIES! WHO KNOWS WHAT YOU COULD DO TO THEM?" Papyrus was there with both logic and force to keep them under control.

"Paps, I'm gonna ask you again. Do you want to be in the Friend Club?"

"...THE ANSWER IS STILL NO."

Alas, this friendly bickering was put to an end as the rather short memory disintegrated once more. A new scene was formed, the five skeletons forced to move or be moved as a few trees and benches formed where they had previously been standing, and before them sprawled a massive park.

Directly ahead of them were two skeletons sparring together... not Seriff and his Papyrus, but rather, Seriff and his Gaster. The two seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the quick yet rash fighting style of the younger's greatsword against the more moderate yet experienced style of the older's naginata was quite entertaining to watch.

As the young Seriff darted forward to slash at the other with great speed, the young Gaster merely sidestepped, and brought up his left leg in a graceful kick to the other's side. "Think ten steps ahead before you act, sister. You must be prepared for any outcome; for your opponent will not always behave as expected."

Ah, So Gaster was Portuguese... 

They really had to ask Seriff about this whole accent thing when they returned. 

Seriff rolled, but did a hand spring to put him back on his feet, his knees bent and his arms pulled back to his side. He was only ten, but he held the sword so naturally, as if he had known how to wield it since he was a babybones...

He huffed, going to retort when a fox monster walked through the training field and casually cutting between the battle. He pointed a finger at Gaster, "He, not her. Male soul, male pronouns. Brother, not sister." Twisting on the heel of his boot, the fox walked backwards as he made the 'I'm watching you' signal and left.

"...Who... was that?" Gaster raised a brow, turning to where he last saw Seriff.

He was not there. 

The view of rocks on floor became view of rocks on ceiling as the taller one found himself with his back lying on the ground. Seriff poked his head into the other's line of sight, "That was Sirius."

"Ah. A medical doctor, I presume, if he is able to discern the minute differences between a soul's gender preference and natural gender." The scientist swung the shaft of his naginata outwards, both aiming for Seriff's legs and using the momentum of this movement to return to his feet.

...Sans and the others watched on, expressions of slight disapproval and curiosity on their faces as they regarded the two siblings. It seemed that Gaster was a stickler for calling Seriff by his birth pronouns- something only hinted at during that time said Aussie was sick and questioned.

Seriff glided away from his opponent, pulling his great sword into a defensive action. He then shrugged, "Sirius means well. Remember, I grew up in this area when mom and dad were still..." The younger paused, before clearing his throat, "Anyways. Mom and Dad were pretty adamant about everyone calling me by my _actual_ gender."

He shifted lightly, "And mom was a pretty scary lady. There was a moment when Dad joked about how I didn't look anything like him and how, if he didn't know any better, he'd say she was cheating on him..."

"She made you make a bunch of cheesecake in front of him that he wasn't allowed to eat, didn't she?"

The younger stood up a with a casual look of surprise, "She made you do that too?!"

The young Gaster grinned to himself, swinging his blade around towards the off-guard Seriff as he replied. "Indeed she did. It was under similar circumstances, but that time, Mael had been using his puppy eyes on her too much."

A passing onlooker noticed the two sparring siblings, and sighed happily at the sight, leaning over to the girl on her arm. "Look at them, it's the two of the three Seriff brothers. I haven't seen Wingdings around here in a while. Do you think he's eligible?"

"Who knows? I heard he changed his last name to Gaster, in honor of getting such a high-ranked job. He'll always be a Seriff to me though... the boys of that family are always so handsome!" The other girl giggled, neither of the two noticing the slight twitch in Gaster's smile as he was referred to as a 'Seriff brother.'

Seriff dodged the incoming blade, although it was quite the close call. "I always thought it was funny, how they were called puppy eyes." He mused. "And how dad always used 'em on mom, who's a cat skeleton. You'd think they would be ineffective after so long."

Seriff's eyes followed the two girls, frowning softly. "...Why do I always get this foreboding feeling of impending doom around women?"

"Perhaps because you don't want to face the impending realization that you are one yourself?" As soon as he was given a dirty look, the Gaster snickered quietly, and sent an amused smile the other's way. "I'm merely joking, Sans. Besides, if you are to be a man, then you need to know how to properly treat the ladies."

Seriff remained quiet for a few moments... before his mouth turned upwards in a mischievous grin. As the taller skeleton began to wonder what the other could be thinking, the Aussie child turned towards the two ladies and shouted at the top of his nonexistent lungs, "HEY!"

They turned towards him curiously, and he gestured to his asshole of a brother with the blade of his sword in one hand and the palm of his other. "THIS IS GASTER! HE WANTS TO SAY HELLO TO YOU BUT HE'S TOO NERVOUS!"

_Why that cheeky little-_

A mob of fangirls came out of nowhere, likely happening to be in nearby streets and other areas of the park, and clustered around the armed scientist. He was thereby forced to politely socialize, all the while Seriff gave him a challenging look, as though saying something like, ' _Show me how to properly treat the ladies now, jerk_.'

The five watching skeletons could do nothing but appreciate the sass that Seriff showed even this young, and as said Aussie considered the crowd of women around his brother, the dawning expression of horrified realization brought them to full-out laughter. _This is what the foreboding feeling was about. It was the fangirls..._

...Welp, he was still young, so he might as well enjoy this situation by adding onto it. 

"OI!" The girls turned to him for a moment, and the ten year old smiled innocently, "Did you all know that's he's single and looking for someone?"

_OH YOU LITTLE-_

Instantly, the crowd of girls began to act a bit... differently. Several became more shy, a bit more demure, as though they could barely believe he was anywhere near them. A few were clingy, leaning in close and wrapping their arms around him with passive, peaceful smiles, as though there wasn't anywhere else they'd rather be. But there was one girl in the very back, who at first looked appealing for her lack of action like the others, but whose presence soon became unnerving as she did nothing but stand there... staring at him... with a smile that slowly grew wider every second he looked at her...

...

It took some time to free himself from the throng.

"My apologies, ladies, but I'm afraid I must leave you for now." At the disappointed pouts and eyes beginning to go watery, Gaster smiled sadly at the crowd, seeming for all the world he wished to stay. "My dearest apologies, my little sibling forgot that we had to leave so soon. I'm sure, when I see you fine women out and about again, I'll be certain to say hello."

Swiftly, gracefully, the taller skeleton grasped Seriff by the hand and pulled him along, leaving behind the slowly dispersing crowd of ladies with a brisk pace and one final wave back to them.

The five skeletons watching this memory followed along, highly amused at the events that had just transpired. Having fangirls, it seemed, ran in the Aussie's family.

Seriff snickered the entire time he and Gaster walked to Hotland. The scientist didn't seem very pleased. "That wasn't funny Sans."

The younger's grin grew even wider, his fangs revealing themselves as it did so. "You're right, it was hilarious."

The eldest brother groaned good-naturedly as they walked up to the elevator, causing Seriff's laughter to grow. 

They seemed to get along...

Until they entered the lab...

Did they immediately separate as though the other were the very embodiment of the plague?

"Finally..." Gaster breathed a near-silent sigh of relief, one mirrored by Seriff, before turning to face said little sibling. His expression grew neutral, emotionless, as he regarded the other. "..."

Seriff said nothing, giving the other a look of disgust and utter contempt. His tail swished once in a while in agitation, and he turned his head away from the other, looking ahead. "..."

....Who turned on the AC, because shit, it was cold in here.

Which was saying something for a bunch of skeletons that used to live in an icy wonderland.

Still carefully regarding the other, ultimately unaware of the five skeletons observing this scene, Gaster spoke in the silence of the hallway. "...I don't hate you."

Wow. That was encouraging to hear. Everything was a-okay now!

...Was that a bit too sarcastic?

"At least one of us could say that truthfully." Seriff replied, his sarcasm as strong as his accent. But intelligent or sarcastic, he was still ten. His body language gave away everything he was feeling; anger, hate, fear, and more hate.

"damn, he's that good at playing nice in public already? what the fuck kind of shit is gaster doing to him?" The other four skeletons glanced over at Red, noticing his furious expression, but made no comment. The bipolar Fell Sans' mood swings could be dealt with later, when they were out of this mess.

Before them, Gaster sighed, moving forward and gesturing for the smaller skeleton to follow. They were likely headed to a testing room of sorts, if the suspicions of the lazier viewers were correct, but the path seemed to be a long one from the door.

"You mistake necessity for desire, sister. I do not harm you because I want to; but because I have to."

"You can word it however you like, Wingdings. Call it a necessity if it makes you feel better." He shrugged. He walked into the room, his eye lights disappearing as he said, "Torture is still Torture." However, the slitted lights returned after he entered the area. "So long as you keep Papyrus out of this, I don't give a fuck."

"So it seems, so it seems." With that final comment from Gaster, the scene began to dissipate, and the five watching skeletons were left in the mist once more.


End file.
